Every stage of the mediation process is extraordinarily antiquated when compared to most industry sectors, including litigation. Attorneys email mediation statements to the mediator. Few mediators and attorneys understand and know how to prepare a risk analysis. Offer terms are conveyed orally, using the game of telephone and scribbled notes on legal pads. Midpoints are either forgotten or hastily scribbled in the margins. Mediators have limited options to communicate with the parties when not in the same physical or digital room. Late in the day, someone discovers there are non-monetary terms not clearly understood by all of the parties. When a deal is finally struck, the process of memorializing the terms so everyone can go home is disjointed and time-consuming. And mediators receive less feedback from their clients than Uber drivers.
Attorneys and clients are understandably disillusioned and disengaged from such an antiquated process that can easily lead to costly and embarrassing mistakes for everyone but especially for the mediator. Indeed, every mediator worries about making a mistake while conveying an offer, or emailing the wrong person, and should be very concerned that confidentiality has been maintained during the mediation process.
In January 2019, a mediator in Georgia began designing Peacemaker to modernize every step of the mediation process from case creation through final resolution. Peacemaker was in the development stage when mediators rushed to Zoom and Teams during the pandemic. Now in 2023, with the pandemic in the rearview mirror, mediators are conducting in-person, online, and hybrid mediations. And yet, the mediation process is still relying upon scribbled notes and memory.
Rather than focusing on simple ways to update the process, tech companies leapt into the Matrix with mediation platforms that minimize or remove rather than facilitate and enhance the critical role of mediators in resolving human conflicts. Other companies tried to replace Zoom and Teams with videoconferencing platforms that are expensive and not easy to operate. Mediators love Zoom and Teams, and any successful mediation software must work seamlessly alongside these platforms rather than attempt to replace them.
Peacemaker is founded on the principle that mediators will embrace technology to optimize mediation so long as it is safe, secure, and simple. Peacemaker excels in all three areas and may be the easiest legal software of any kind.
Peacemaker offers critical tools to optimize all three stages of the mediation process.
Prepare
The mediator creates a new case quickly and easily. Attorneys register and add group members.
Attorneys securely upload mediation statements, exhibits, and other case documents.
Attorneys may utilize a powerful case valuation tool. The mediator may require submission of valuations.
Negotiate
Parties in caucus sessions send offer terms digitally to the mediator only. The mediator controls publication to the other party with two commands – Deliver or Return.
Peacemaker optimizes any mediator’s personal style and pace, never interfering or requiring mediator modifications.
Simplicity in design allows use of any device including a cell phone, tablet, or computer.
Peacemaker generates a chronology of offer terms and tracks midpoints and percentage changes.
Secure messaging maintains constant contact between the mediator and each party but never directly between parties.
Any registered user may receive real-time updates of negotiations, including those who cannot attend the mediation but want to track developments.
Conclude
Peacemaker automatically generates a modifiable term sheet that the parties can finalize and share securely within Peacemaker.
The parties may complete a quick survey to provide the mediator with ratings and testimonials