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CONTACT Magazine (Vol.18 No.1 – April 2018)

The first issue of the rebranded CONTACT Magazine — with a brand new editorial and design direction — produced by MEP Publishers for the Trinidad & Tobago Chamber of Industry & Commerce

The first issue of the rebranded CONTACT Magazine — with a brand new editorial and design direction — produced by MEP Publishers for the Trinidad & Tobago Chamber of Industry & Commerce

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the chamber and its members<br />

mediation<br />

How to settle a<br />

dispute<br />

Based on personal experience at the Dispute<br />

Resolution Centre, a mediation expert reflects on<br />

how to manage the process<br />

WORDS By: niall lawless<br />

photos courtesy: the dispute resolution centre<br />

In November 2017, I worked at the Trinidad and Tobago Dispute Resolution<br />

Centre (DRC) for three days as an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)-<br />

appointed mediator in a multi-million US dollar engineering dispute, which<br />

resulted in a settlement.<br />

Mediation is not adversarial. It works best when the participants trust the<br />

process, and are willing to cooperate to solve a shared problem. Nothing is agreed<br />

until everything is agreed in writing, which allows the parties to take risks when they<br />

come to deal with individual items.<br />

Five stages<br />

The whole process is confidential, private and structured. It has five stages:<br />

introduction, information exchange, option generation, negotiation, and conclusion.<br />

Information exchange and option generation are by far the most important.<br />

Commercial mediation begins with the parties agreeing to mediate, and usually<br />

ends with the parties settling their dispute. The parties are the stars; usually they are<br />

common-sense business people motivated by revenue and contribution, and a desire<br />

to continue future cooperation.<br />

The mediation outcome is affected by whom the parties choose to attend the<br />

mediation meetings on their behalf. Each party should bring a lead negotiator with<br />

full authority to settle the dispute, and to sign the settlement agreement. The role<br />

of lead negotiator is challenging, as it requires the evaluation and development of<br />

options, and being able to respond to any new information provided by the other<br />

party. The lead negotiator needs the support of respected, trusted and valued<br />

colleagues.<br />

The lawyers<br />

The parties’ lawyers can make or break the mediation. Good mediation lawyers<br />

can move seamlessly from advocate to advisor. In their role as advocate they will<br />

succinctly summarise legal principles, but not in an adversarial or combative way,<br />

gifting litigation risk to the mediator.<br />

They allow the business principal to take the lead, preparing their clients by offering<br />

44<br />

Trinidad<br />

and Tobago Chamber<br />

of Industry and Commerce<br />

www.chamber.org.tt/contact-magazine

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