Slogging Through Mediation
My beloved hiking boots--I wore them hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and I treasure these boots and the trails we covered together. But they also symbolize what happens to all of us at a mediation. Many times mediation is a long, hard, uphill slog through the snow, mud and rocks. Mediation can seem interminable; an all-uphill hike filled with false hopes that the end is just around the corner. Ah, but that feeling at the end of a case when the mediation succeeds is well worth it.
I was reminded of the slog after reading a recent Illinois decision over how to divide up the estate between the decedent's four children and second wife. After 13 hours of mediation, the five parties tentatively reached an agreement. A written "Memorandum of Settlement" was prepared but it was so late that everyone left without signing. One party explicitly asked if she could "sleep on it." Another party had previously left the mediation after "only" nine …
I was reminded of the slog after reading a recent Illinois decision over how to divide up the estate between the decedent's four children and second wife. After 13 hours of mediation, the five parties tentatively reached an agreement. A written "Memorandum of Settlement" was prepared but it was so late that everyone left without signing. One party explicitly asked if she could "sleep on it." Another party had previously left the mediation after "only" nine …
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