THE“ VOICE OF THE CLIENT” FILM: ANOTHER MEDIATION INNOVATION FROM HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY
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The film“ The Voice of the Client” will help trial lawyers and mediators mediate in a way that builds trust with decisionmakers.
Hillsborough County has long been a thought leader for mediation innovation in Florida. Hillsborough County hosted Florida’ s original mandatory mediation pilot program. Mandatory mediation is now standard procedure across the State. In 2021, the Hillsborough County Bar Association’ s Trial and Litigation and Mediation Sections combined to create The Florida Mediation Best Practices Handbook, Florida’ s first mediation best practices guide for trial lawyers and mediators. Now in its Third Edition, the Handbook contains the collective wisdom of over 800 trial lawyers and mediators. It is available on the HCBA’ s Trial and Litigation and Mediation Sections’ webpages at hillsbar. com. That same year, the HCBA hosted the first Litigator Mediator Forum. This unique CLE was created to bring trial lawyers and mediators together to share their best strategies and techniques, so they could achieve better outcomes and improve the mediation process together. Since 2021, Litigator Mediator Forums have been held across Florida by numerous bar associations, law schools, The Florida Bar and even the ABA. The guest list has grown to include judges, federal magistrates, in-house counsel,
adjusters, risk managers and even law students.
Until recently, the one voice that had not been included in the conversation about how to improve the mediation process was the most important voice of all: the voice of the client, the individual litigant.
As a Hillsborough County-based circuit civil mediator, and Outreach Chair for the ADR Section of The Florida Bar, Harold Oehler worked with the ADR Section to create a film made up of interviews with a diverse collection of actual litigants who have recently mediated cases. The film was fittingly premiered at the HCBA on April 16th. During the film, parties to mediation were asked to reveal how the mediation process impacted their lives both positively and negatively. Longstanding beliefs of trial lawyers and mediators about how to best conduct mediation are challenged by this film. Intense and honest feedback from clients will help trial lawyers and mediators mediate in a manner that builds trust with decisionmakers. Among the questions asked of the litigants, who all waived confidentiality to participate in this film:
• How did the opening statement of opposing counsel make you feel?
• What is the most effective type
of opening statement by opposing counsel?
• How much pressure should a mediator use to encourage settlement?
• Are you more likely to reach a settlement in an in-person or virtual mediation?
• Should the mediator meet with only the lawyers or did this make you feel excluded?
• What did the mediator and opposing counsel do that you liked and didn’ t like?
• How would you improve the mediation process? To our knowledge, this information has never previously been collected. This is a unique effort to give clients a voice to improve the mediation process across Florida. This film is designed to be presented to legal organizations, law firms, Inns of Court, law schools, universities, etc. to engage mediation participants to discuss how to make the mediation process more effective and efficient.
The Florida Bar awards credit for CLE’ s, including the film“ Voice of the Client.” If your legal organization or law firm would like to host a presentation of the“ Voice of the Client,” please contact Harold Oehler, Outreach Chair of the Florida Bar’ s ADR Section, at Harold @ OehlerMediation. com. �
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