ABSTRACT
A mediator using decision analysis to build and present a case evaluation is more likely to overcome impasse while avoiding damage to the mediation process. The mediator almost inevitably forms an opinion on the various disputed legal, factual, and technical issues through the various stages of a mediation process. The various stages of a mediation process: in preparation, preliminary private meetings, and joint mediation sessions, while reviewing documents and listening to counsel, the parties, and key expert or fact witnesses. The mediator has derived the evaluation from his or her views of the strengths and weaknesses of the parties' positions on factual and legal issues. Decision analysis permits confidence in the integrity of the mediator's evaluation. In a complex case, the mediator often faces a daunting, wide and tangled web of factual and legal issues when trying to arrive at an evaluation.
