Each student will be writing an opening statement that a facilitative mediator would make (orally) to disputants who have never before participated in mediation. Each student should assume a civil legal dispute (contract, tort, or commercial dispute), his or state has adopted using the Uniform Mediation Act, and the student will ask his or her clients to sign a contract making mediation confidential.
- An explanation of what mediation is, and how it works, in simple and easy-to-understand language so clients know what to expect.
- An explanation of the role and responsibility of the mediator (including neutrality and impartiality and why they are important).
- An explanation of the confidentiality of mediation, where it comes from, and why it is important.
- An explanation of the advantages of using facilitative mediation, the goal being to get the clients to buy into and trust the process.
- Use language that takes advantage of Deutsch's Crude Axiom and moves the disputants toward cooperation. In other words, the entire statement should show mindfulness of non-escalating approaches to communication.