Mediation is a process of settling legal disputes with the help of a neutral and third-party facilitator. Most mediators have legal back ground. However, not all mediators are lawyers or ex-judges. Regardless of their educational back ground, individuals go through required hours of training before serving as mediators in Maryland. Most jurisdictions in Maryland encourage parties to attempt to settle their cases with the help of a mediator. Here are the main benefits of mediation.

1. In mediation, the parties play an active and deciding role in the final outcome of a case. Unlike litigation where the decision on the case is made by a judge or a jury, the parties themselves decide on mutually acceptable terms. The mediator consults both parties and takes notes. Each party provides his/her proposal and the mediator writes down the terms as agreed by both parties. A judge will finally ratify the agreement by making sure the parties knowingly and voluntarily agreed on the mediated outcome.

2. Mediation can also avoid a long and costly litigation. This can be cost effective for a client as well as a lawyer. A lawyer does not usually bill a client for trial preparation and litigation if the case is settled in mediation. This can save the client a lot of money. An attorney can also save tremendous amount of time and resource by focusing on more contentious cases that cannot be settled through mediation.

3. Mediation can save resources of judges and the court staff as well. In certain jurisdictions in Maryland, judges have a heavy load of cases. Settling a case through mediation will free up some time for the judges. This gives judges the opportunity to divert their time and resource towards deciding other contentious cases. This will in turn accelerate the resolution of cases that have been on the court’s docket for quite some time.

Is procrastination the number 1 enemy of lawyers?
Procrastination is the tendency of people to delay takings actions on tasks to be accomplished. I believe that procrastination is one of the top enemies of attorneys. As attorneys, we are expected to do a lot of tasks. We have briefs to submit, clients to meet, family and social responsibilities. We also have clients’ expectations and professional responsibilities as officers of courts. Because of the volume of work we handle, we may be tempted at times to delay acting on certain things. We may say “I will do this research tomorrow, this weekend or next week.” We may tend to procrastinate on calling clients or witnesses. Any one can be a victim of procrastination. However, as attorneys we need to control our urge to procrastinate. We should write that brief as soon as possible, call that client today, check our calendar regularly. The habit of taking immediate action can save us from rushing things and compromising the quality of our work. It helps us avoid unnecessary stress. Making that call or sending that email or text message to our client will free our mind from feeling guilty that we have not updated the client. Acting now will free our time down the road and give us a psychological boost. The feeling of accomplishing a task motivates us to take further proactive actions. In short, we should strive to be action oriented instead of becoming victims of procrastination

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Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.