COMMERCIAL MEDIATION

Litigation is expensive and time-consuming. It is generally a total distraction from the rest of your life. Responding to discovery creates apprehension for everyone and nothing else gets done.

Litigation occurs on everyone else's schedule: the other side's, the court's and your lawyer's.

When disputes are with employees, a fight will often destroy the relationship with the employee. In the meantime, your current employees will watch carefully to see how you deal with the former employee.

If the dispute is with a business co-owner, engaging in litigation all but assures that the relationship between the two of you cannot survive.

If the dispute is with a customer, litigation guarantees the customer will be a "former" customer. In the meantime, the publicity of the litigation may get back to your other customers. This can't be good for building and maintaining a business.

If the dispute is with your tenant (or landlord), that relationship is going to be strained at every turn unless you can have a conversation in a safe, controlled setting.

Mediation solves many of these issues.

• The process is completely confidential (with some limited exceptions) so what other customers and employees know is entirely up to you.
• Meetings are scheduled at your convenience (including evenings and weekends).
• Whether or not each participant hires his or her own attorney, the cost is less time-consuming and less expensive.
• You speak for yourself and control how aggressive the conversations are (at least from your side of things).
• The discussion is not limited by the rules of law or evidence. Neither are the solutions. The creativity of the solutions is generally limited only by the limits of your collective imaginations.
  

While Resolution Point provides divorce mediation services, we are also very active with commerical mediation. At Resolution Point, you don’t have to choose between mediators who are lawyers or not, and between mediators who are certified or not. Our mediator, Daniel R. Burk, is:

• A lawyer admitted to practice in Virginia (1981) and the District of Columbia (1984).
• A certified mediator, certified by the Supreme Court of Virginia to receive court referrals from the Virginia Juvenile & Domestic Relations, General District and Circuit Courts. He is also certified to mentor mediators-in-training.
• A former business owner who sold his company in 2000 after almost 15 years of successful operation.
• Experienced with commercial mediations. In 2007, Mr. Burk mediated over 100 commercial and neighborhood mediations.
  

Every mediation is different and every mediator’s approach is different. Here’s what generally happens at Resolution Point.

The first time we meet, we will have an “Orientation Session” where we will talk about the mediation process in general and the specifics of how it usually takes place at Resolution Point. We will review an Agreement to Mediate and Ground Rules.

If you decide to mediate with Resolution Point, you can expect the process to look somewhat like what we've described at Mediation Basics. You'll also see some ideas on how to get ready at Getting Ready to Mediate.