Why is mediation an efficient business dispute resolution tool in San Diego?  The short answers are time and money.  You are looking to resolve your business dispute quickly and efficiently while accomplishing your objectives.  Mediation provides a positive, structured environment for resolving business disputes.  The parties agree upon a neutral third party “mediator.”  The mediator establishes the rules for your mediation while working with you to find common ground.  The mediator will help to get all issues on the table while guiding the parties through the identification of potential resolution options.  As the client, you have much greater influence and control over the process than you will in court.

Why is business mediation an efficient dispute resolution tool for small business owners?  The fastest and least expensive strategy to resolve a business dispute is negotiation.  The Watkins Firm is able to resolve the vast majority of our business dispute cases through effective, leveraged negotiation.  What happens when negotiations are not able to resolve every aspect of the dispute at hand?

Mediation creates an environment where you and the other party or parties have skin in the game.  The mediator sets ground rules to keep things positively focused.  The neutral will work back and forth between the parties helping to increase understanding of the challenge(s) and potential resolution options.  Ultimately the mediator will bring you and the other party or parties together to work face-to-face to resolve the dispute.

Our attorneys at the Watkins Firm contribute to the productive working environment.  We provide you with insight, legal expertise, and the benefit of more than four decades of experience in San Diego and California business mediation cases.  We help you maintain the initiative while keeping overhead and expenses at a bare minimum.  All focus and energy in mediation is focused upon a productive resolution.  You will appreciate the prompt resolution and the ease of the environment and the process.   Your budget will benefit from the substantial savings over the cost of business litigation in a San Diego Court.

Pro-Tip: “A settlement conference or mediation is where you’re going to sit in front of a, non-biased really intelligent settlement conference, judge or mediator. And he’s going to twist both your arms and hopefully slap you around to wake up to the facts. And he’s going to tell you good stories of the hundreds of trials he’s presided over and how they came out. And sometimes that wakes you up when you can have some judge, you know, doesn’t favor once out of the other, say, look, I tried 25 cases like yours. And the biggest fear was this, this and this or the other flip side of that. They say, you know, you’re going to win, but what is it going to cost you to get there? And how much is it going to hurt your business? What are you going to do to win this trial? You’re going to damage your entire company to win this case, or you going to do something reasonable, move on and carry on with your life. So those kind of things backed up with good old stories are very effective in solving cases.

So what are you looking for when you’re choosing a mediator?  When you file your court case in the civil court, they have a list of of settlement conference judges. We know the best mediators and can guide our clients to make sure we have selected a skilled and knowledgeable mediator. There’s also different companies that have good settlement judges with good reputations. You have to understand before you get to trial, the court system is designed to make it so that 95% of cases settle. So if 95% of cases are going to settle, you better have a good settlement conference strategy, or you’re only playing for the last 5%. That’s not real good, you know, strategy when it comes to litigation.

You’re also looking for a mediator that has experience with the specific type of case at hand.  There are mediators for construction defects, mediators for complex litigation, mediators for a shareholder dispute, mediators who have had more experience in the specific area of your dispute. It’s also the reputation of the mediator, do they have the right type of disposition? There are lots of good ones. We really like the former judges, those, you know, experienced men and women from the bench turn out to be wonderful mediators that get problems solved in difficult situations.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

Our Judges have too many cases on the books and require mediation prior to hearing a case.  Why is mediation an efficient business resolution tool before trial?  Mediation helps to resolve part or all of the issues between the parties.  If there is a matter of principle requiring a judge, other less important issues have been resolved and the trial can be much more focused on the remaining dispute(s).  This keeps costs at a minimum while ensuring your goals are achieved.

We invite you to review our podcast Episode 11 – Resolving Business Disputes as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.