MARKSPOWERS LLP

MARKSPOWERS OVERVIEW OF ONLINE MEDIATION

              What you and your client need.  All you need is a free version of the Zoom app, a computer or tablet with microphone and camera, and a secure, private internet connection. You and your client do not have to be in the same room if you each have these items.  Go to zoom.us/download to download the free Zoom Client for Meetings app and more information.

                How it will work.  It will be the same as an in-person mediation—just online.  At the start of the mediation, you and your client will click on the link we email you to join the mediation. You will arrive in a “waiting room” with no one else present. The mediator will join you as soon as possible and move you to a private breakout room with your attorney or client, where you can see and hear each other and communicate privately with none of the other attorneys or clients present.  The mediator will check in with each breakout room, and when everyone is ready, we will meet in a joint session where you can see and hear everyone, and they can see and hear you.  At the end of the joint session, the mediator will move the parties back to their private breakout rooms and then meet with each room separately the same way we do in in-person mediations.  Throughout the mediation, we can share documents.  If needed, the mediator can meet with just the lawyers in another breakout room, have caucuses with any combination of participants, and bring parties back together for joint sessions.  At the end of the mediation, the mediator can provide you a settlement document for online editing and digital signature.  We can do everything online that we did in person without anyone having to meet in person.

            How we will test the system before the mediation.  We will schedule our standard pre-mediation conference call with counsel on Zoom.  You will need to download the free Zoom Client for Meetings app, make sure your computer, internet, microphone and camera are ready, and then log onto the pre-mediation conference call with the link we will email to you.  We can answer your questions in the pre-mediation conference call.  Then, if you are not already a Zoom subscriber, you can download a free Zoom Basic Plan of your own, which will allow you to initiate meetings and host meetings.   You can then have a video conference with your client to test their end of the system.  The free app allows you to conference for up to forty minutes.  We have a paid license, so that time limit will not apply to any conference call or mediation that we sponsor.

                More questions?  Just contact Kristin, Tad, Michael or Adam at MarksPowers for more information.