Estate Planning

Jacksonville Mediations can save time and costs

By David M. Goldman

When is a Jacksonville Mediator helpful in resolving a Florida lawsuit?

After your Jacksonville attorney has filed suit, or you have been served with one you may quickly find that thousands of dollars are spend in attorney?s fees and costs. There are fees for pleadings and counter-pleadings, requests and responses to interrogatories and requests for admissions, depositions and motion hearings. Typically after all of these fees your attorney sets the case for trial only to then inform you that the court has ordered mediation by a Florida Mediator.

Florida Clients often ask, Why are they are now having to meet with the other party to discuss settlement after paying all this money and waiting all this time for a trial? They wonder if they could have met much earlier in process and saved thousands of dollars. If you are in a lawsuit you should ask your Florida Lawyer early if the court will be ordering a mediation and when the proper time to have the mediation would be. Often an early mediation can save both sides substantial fees and lead to a good resolution of the issues involved in the case.

Florida Mediators are regulated by the Dispute Resolution Center of the Office of the State Courts Administrator, which is part of the Supreme Court of Florida. There are a variety of mediator designations, as follows: civil circuit (not including family), family, county civil and dependency. The primary laws that apply to mediation include Florida Statutes Chapter 44 and Florida Rules for Certified & Court-Appointed Mediators.

Ask your Jacksonville Lawyer which Florida mediator he or she will recommend and why. Often the Jacksonville Lawyers appear for the hearing to set the case for trial, and have not thought about the benefits of a Florida mediator. When the court asks them who they want to mediate, the attorneys then shoot from the hip having not previously discussed it.

The choice of a Jacksonville Mediator is crucial, as the case may settle at mediation saving you, the litigant, the uncertainty of the outcome, thousands in attorney?s fees and costs by avoiding trial preparation, expert witness fees, court reporter fees, the trial, and, if you lose, the cost of an appeal. Make sure the mediator has a working background in the subject matter of the lawsuit. For example, if the lawsuit is a real estate dispute, the mediator could better understand the issues if the mediator had experience in actually conducting real estate transactions.

For questions or comments on the use or selection of a Florida Mediator, contact Michael S. Price, Esq., Circuit Civil Mediator, 1616 Jork Rd., Suite 102, Jacksonville, FL 32207; telephone (904) 396-4445; E-mail mpriceatty@bellsouth.net who focuses on disputes related to real estate, contracts, construction, leasing, foreclosure, property defects, binder deposits, and disputes related to business, partnerships and shareholders.

Full post as published by Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog on December 18, 2008 (boomark / email).