Mediation Cases

Connection Partners, Inc. specializes in mediations between people who are connected by choice or by necessity, and who need to resolve issues or disputes with one another.
All mediation case illustrations presented here have been disguised to protect anonymity and maintain confidentiality.

Business to Business Dispute

Problem: Two small business owners were in serious conflict over use of facilities at their shared business location. Both wanted to maximize customer access to their respective businesses but had very different approaches to how best to use the shared meeting space. This conflict was exacerbated by construction of a nearby office that closed off an alternative corridor.

Results: Through mediation with Connection Partners, Inc., the parties first reached agreement that it was important that any forthcoming solutions not negatively affect either business. Mediators helped the parties to generate a number of options for resolving the issues between them, including having one business set up an area for receipt of all deliveries. Mediation ended after the parties were able to agree on a plan that each was willing to try for a 30-day trial period.

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Post-Divorce, Co-Parenting Conflict

Problem: Although parents had been co-parenting their daughter since their divorce two years earlier, they had not communicated extensively during the two year time-span. Presenting issues included: The father did not think he was getting the support he needed from his former wife in dealing with their now teenage child, who was having problems getting along with the father’s new wife. The daughter was resisting going to her father’s home, and was supported by the mother who saw the father’s wife as "hostile" toward the child. The father said the child did not show proper respect for adults, while the mother did not see the daughter either as lacking social skills or as being antisocial.

Results: To help the parties communicate and problem solve effectively, Connection Partners, Inc. co-mediators guided the parties to:

• Slow the pace of their verbal exchanges
• Use active listening behaviors in order to understand each other’s point of view
• Sort out which of their identified parenting issues needed to be decided jointly from those that could be decided without consulting the other
• Differentiate between those issues between the two of them that they could control and deal with in mediation versus those that were things they wanted others to do that were not part of the mediation
• Consider what the other's interests and concerns might be in order to create solutions that would meet each of their interests

As a result of mediation, the parties collaboratively developed a plan and decision making procedures for resolving future co-parenting issues.

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Neighborhood Dispute

Problem: Several neighbors came to mediation in dispute over noise resulting from music played near open windows during the summer.

Results: Connection Partners, Inc. mediators helped the neighbors understand each other's very different needs for their homes (e.g., solitude and privacy versus a place to socialize and unwind). After two sessions, the neighbors gave up threats for legal remedies, hugged spontaneously, and decided to resolve the matter outside of mediation.