ABSTRACT
Public and private judicial mediations regularly begin with a face to face meeting or "initial joint session" which includes all the disputants together with the judge-mediator. The initial joint session then routinely evolves into a series of private conference sessions between the judicial mediator and each litigant. This chapter focuses on judicial mediation work in this system of joint and private conferences. In the initial joint session, each disputant generally articulates its case to the judge-mediator in the face-to-face presence of its opponent. Private conferences in court and at Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services comprise the heart of the judicial mediator's concession-seeking work in large money damage mediations. As the operative counterpart of mediator neutrality, the judicial mediator may work during the initial joint session to establish negotiator good faith in concession-making. During the initial joint meeting, areas of agreement and disagreement between the parties may be formulated and probed for.
