(For Family Arbitration, please refer to the “Family Arbitration” page)
Mediation is one of the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes where the involved parties have a meeting facilitated by a mediator to resolve their legal matters without going to court.
Mediation is a voluntary process. Unlike traditional litigation (trial) or an arbitration where a judge or an arbitrator makes a decision (and hence takes away decision making power from the parties), mediation allows the parties to take the initiative to negotiate and reach a resolution on their own. Therefore, the outcome from mediation is often more mutually satisfying than that from litigation.
Participating in mediation is significantly less stressful than going through litigation or even arbitration. That is because litigation involves many adversarial steps such as Questioning (also known as Discovery or Examination) and trial where what the party said can be used against them and often results in a win-lose outcome made by a third party. The fact that a third party is making a decision is the same for arbitration. Mediation, in contrast, is carried out in a safe environment because the parties agree to keep exchanged information out of the court (“without prejudice”). In addition, the goal of mediation is to reach a win-win solution by the parties.
A mediator should be trained to stay neutral and promote candid discussion so that the parties can deepen each other’s understanding. A mediator will not provide solutions or weigh in on a particular resolution over other ideas. Nonetheless, it is definitely beneficial to choose a lawyer who has a deep understanding of the subject matter as your mediator. While a mediator cannot provide a legal opinion (e.g. “You should/ should not do this because it is beneficial/ detrimental for you”), they can provide valuable legal information (e.g. “the law says…” “if you two go to the Court, the likely outcome is…”) as the parties negotiate.
Anybody could call themselves as a mediator. However, the BARR LLP mediation team is committed to solidifying their skills by going through rigorous mediation training from well-recognized organizations before qualifying as mediators.
BARR LLP’s Mediation Team
One of our named partners, Yoko Azumaya, has built her practice through a collaborative style. She has taken over 120 hours of mediation training from organizations such as ADR Institute of Alberta (ADRIA) and the Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA) and is committed to continued training as she firmly believes that being an effective mediator requires skills that can be perfected only through extensive practice. Although mediation skills are transferrable to many kinds of disputes, she exclusively mediates family matters as she would like to combine her experience of more than 10 years of family law with mediation skills.
Our other mediator is Stephen English. Stephen English KC, a former President of the Alberta Civil Trial Lawyers’ Association, is a seasoned litigator with over 40 years’ experience in commercial litigation. An early adopter of the Client-Centered approach to client counselling, in 1992 he created the Client Interviewing & Counselling component of the Legal Education Society of Alberta’s Bar Admission Course, a two-day workshop course that he instructed for the following 20 years. A seasoned negotiator with training at Harvard Law School’s Intensive Mediation Course, he leverages his litigation experience in his Mediation & Arbitration practice in addition to his continuing role as counsel in select commercial cases. Stephen can be reached at SEnglish@SEnglishADR.com or Stephen@SEnglishLaw.com.
