A dispute you would rather settle than fight
Some disagreements are better ended at a table than argued over for a year in court: two partners who no longer agree on the business, a family split over a house, neighbours and a property line, spouses working out how to separate. Our firm can resolve disputes that you may be having with someone else, and mediation is the practice built for it. It is voluntary, and the decisions stay with the people in the room rather than with a judge.
Mediation is used in family cases such as divorce and custody, in business disputes, and in civil claims over contracts or property. Maryland courts often encourage parties to try it before a trial date. W. Timothy Sutton, in Baltimore practice since 2003, was the firm's court-certified mediator at 201 North Charles Street, and he also practised divorce and bankruptcy, so he knows what a case would look like if it did not settle.
How a court-certified mediator runs the room
A mediator does not take a side and does not decide who is right. The role is to keep the conversation moving and honest. Mr. Sutton completed more than 60 hours of mediation training, covering both federal and Maryland state courts. A session usually opens with each person explaining the dispute in their own words, then moves to the points they share, and then to the points they do not.
Often the mediator also meets each side privately, carrying proposals back and forth so that nobody has to say the hardest sentence across the table. What is said in mediation is generally kept confidential, which is why people speak more plainly there than they would in a deposition. You may bring your attorney, and at this firm you work directly with an attorney, not a paralegal, from the first call to (410) 539-0300.
The written agreement and what makes it hold
A mediation that ends well ends on paper. The agreement states who will do what, by which date, in language specific enough that nobody argues later about what it meant: the amount, the address, the handover, the schedule. Vague terms are how a settlement comes back as a second dispute. An attorney reads the draft against your own goals before you sign, which is the step most people skip when they mediate without counsel.
A signed agreement is a contract. In a pending case in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Baltimore County or Anne Arundel County it can be handed to the judge and made part of a court order, so that it can be enforced through the court if someone stops complying. Agreements that are fair to both sides hold better, so the aim in the room is a deal each person can live with, not one where somebody gave in.
