Mediation Services

To effectively prepare for mediation and to utilize Mr. Bishop’s time in the most efficient manner (thus reducing your costs), we recommend that each party prepare a “mediation memorandum”. This is not required but can be very helpful during your mediation. This is a confidential mediation memorandum (i.e. the other party will never see it unless you agree to exchange mediation memorandums between yourselves).  This means that each party will only provide their mediation memorandum to Mr. Bishop and not to the other party. This can be done in any format. It does not have to be very formal. Even a letter will suffice. The mediation memorandum should state what the issues between the parties are and why you are taking your positions.

If one of the disputed issues is child custody (legal decision making) and parenting time, please provide what you are proposing and why this serves the children’s best interests. If this is a divorce case, please provide a list of all property and debts that are at issue (or that you are aware of), how the property should be divided and whether either party would owe the other party money.

If you are requesting spousal maintenance, you will want to address how much you are asking for, how long you are asking for spousal maintenance, and the reasons that you think your request is fair.

If child support is at issue, we can run child support calculations for both parties based upon their respective incomes, parenting time and other factors.

If you do not have enough information to list assets and debts, this is okay. This can be explored during the mediation.

Mr. Bishop provides different approaches to mediation depending upon the individuals and their circumstances. Initially, he generally applies a “facilitative” approach during which time he explores with the parties’ various options with the hope that the parties can decide together what agreements make the best sense for themselves and their children. At some point, however, it may be necessary to apply a more “evaluative approach” wherein Mr. Bishop can provide expert feedback regarding Arizona law on the various issues and what a Court may do under a specific set of circumstances. Under any scenario, Mr. Bishop will present alternate solutions that neither party may have thought of. Many mediators are only qualified to provide for facilitative mediation – i.e. they are not qualified to provide evaluative feedback. Some mediators rush immediately to the evaluative model without getting the know the issues and facts in enough detail – thus losing the confidence of one or both clients. Some mediators claim to know what the court may do under the circumstances but have little experience or knowledge upon which to base his or her opinions.

On some occasions, a party to a mediation may feel that he or she was ganged up on or that the mediator took sides. A party should never feel overly pressured to agree to terms. Mediation often requires encouragement so that the parties can fully understand how the proposed terms might be in their best interests. However, a party should never feel “beat up” or unduly pressured after participating in mediation. Unfortunately, this is the case far too often.

Mr. Bishop has absolutely no legal biases entering mediation. There is no favoritism toward husbands, wives, mothers or fathers.  If there are children involved, the children’s best interests are a paramount concern. It is our goal that the parties leave mediation feeling like they were heard, understood, and that we did everything we could to make the mediation a pleasant and productive experience.

It goes without saying that mediation is a wonderful alternative to litigation. However, for mediation to be truly successful each party needs to have equal say and power. This means that a party with a more forceful personality does not have the advantage over the less forceful or less knowledgeable party. It is important that all important facts are known before the mediation, or that such facts can be acquired during the mediation. There needs to be as level of a playing field as possible. The mediator should do more than just be a messenger between the parties of threats or hard-handed negotiation tactics. A good mediator should strive to make sure the parties are on as level of a playing field as possible.

Mr. Bishop provides mediation services to parties that are not represented by attorneys (pro-per or pro-se parties) as well as those that are represented by attorneys.  Unless both parties are already represented by an attorney, we will appreciate advance notice (to both us and the other party) if you are going to have an attorney attend mediation with you.

The introductory mediation meeting is free of charge. The introductory mediation meeting is designed to last approximately 20 minutes (i.e. 10 minutes per party). During this session Mr. Bishop will address the mediation process and answer any questions regarding the process.  Mr. Bishop then will start the mediation itself if requested.

Unless the parties desire otherwise, they are generally seated in two separate rooms and Mr. Bishop takes turns between the parties and generally ensures that each party has an equal amount of time.

When agreements are reached, Mr. Bishop will draft the agreements for the parties to sign – or – to take to their attorneys if they desire additional feedback before signing the documents.