| 1 |
Each client has own attorney involved throughout. |
Mediator is a neutral who facilitates the development of an agreement; each client obtains the services of his/her own attorney to review the agreement and advise before it is signed. |
| 2 |
Legal advice is built into the entire negotiation. |
Mediator cannot give legal advice. One or both clients may choose to have an attorney for background consultation during the mediation process. |
| 3 |
Attorneys and clients participate together in negotiations; when possible, clients carry the main negotiation and attorneys act as advisers. |
Occasionally, clients choose to have their attorneys present during the mediation; however, clients will remain the main participants. |
| 4 |
Each CL attorney is committed to settlement; the CL attorneys must withdraw if the case does not settle or if all discovery (information and documentation) is not voluntarily forthcoming. |
The attorneys that each client hires to complete the process may encourage settlement rather than litigation but does not have the same commit-ment to settlement that exists in a collaborative case. |
| 5 |
CL attorneys take response-bility for obtaining all relevant information and documentation and warrant to each other that they have done so. |
The mediator must work with the information and documentation that clients are willing to produce and has no leverage to help in obtaining discovery that a client is reluctant to produce. |
| 6 |
CL attorneys, unless they are also mediators, are not trained to assist clients in developing improved communication skills. |
The mediator models communication skills that assist clients in improving their own communication skills with each other. |
| 7 |
In collaborative cases, neutral experts may be brought in to assist with specific matters; attorneys and clients agree that there will be no battle of experts. |
Clients in mediation may agree upon a neutral expert but do not share a commitment to avoiding a battle of experts. |
| 8 |
CL attorneys carry the agreement forward to completion of the entire process in the courts. |
Mediator cannot complete the process in court; clients need attorneys to complete the process. |
