I felt the mediation process was well conducted, respectful and considerate of each party’s situation. I thought you did a great job of being neutral and also understanding of everyone’s positions.
I found the process to be comfortable and I thank you for your assistance in helping to get the matter solved.
Thank you so much for your advice and guidance on the mediation in an area that I am happily green.
You provided me with clear insight in understanding the repercussions of taking each path prior to me walking it and for that I appreciate you.
So thank you for gently steering Nina [my partner] & I away from more heart ache and financial loss
It was fantastic to work with you in this mediation. I really like your approach and the preparation and time you put in with the clients beforehand. The information you provide kind of sets the tone and a bit about expectations so we are not too side-tracked with some of the basics (which I feel can happen no matter how much work you put into the advice you give sometimes).
I found that you engaging with clients earlier in the piece makes for an is efficient use of time on the day. Although my client was very keen to acquiesce and be conciliatory which made things very easy, I think that he felt heard and understood by you which is obviously a great way to build trust and rapport before the mediation.
Your mediation style is perfect for family law disputes.
All my clients have commented that they have felt comfortable and at ease during the mediation, even if their matter has not resolved they have felt appreciative of the process.
Your approach to mediations is the reason why we continue to refer you work. The initial meeting with the client’s is really good for them to gauge your style and start to feel open to discussing difficult issues.
I think that the experiences you had on the bench and sharing those with litigants is really effective, they don’t quite understand that things are not as black and white as they might seem to them and that they need to understand that a Judge might not see things the same way as them or their lawyer. It is good to have a mediator who will reality test things and this is also what I think you do really well, in a manner which continues discussions rather than shutting things down.
Every client who has engaged in a mediation with you has commented to me that they benefited from engaging with you and speaking with you.
The client, passed on to me that he felt very comfortable and relaxed during the mediation thanks to your guidance and is very happy with the result which was reached.
I appreciated your approach today and found it very effective. I hope to work with you again soon!
You are a friggen awesome mediator on parenting matters as much as you are on property matters.
Thanks for all your hard work so far Joe.
I can say without a doubt that yesterday’s mediation was one of the best I have been a part of, (and I’ve been doing this for 33 years.)
The intake and preliminary sessions worked well and were efficient and helpful for the practitioners and the parties. Importantly, the intake session put the client’s mind at ease. That is probably in part a reflection of your calm demeanour.
The mediation session itself struck the perfect balance of mediation and conciliation. I understand the role of the mediator can sometimes be a balancing act. Parties need to be heard and must trust the process but at the same time there needs to be reality testing and suitably firm pressure on the parties to shift their position. Striking that balance must be tricky but it is a valuable tool. You do that very well.
My elderly and somewhat fragile client left my office feeling that he had been respected, that the process was fair, and the outcome just. Can’t do better than that!
I like how you stream-lined the process, engaged with the clients directly and were happy to cull the documents right down to a balance sheet. I appreciate not all matters will be that straight forward, but I think for this matter it worked well.
My client appreciated the tone and empathy and felt she was able to express herself, her concerns and talk openly. There were times she felt overwhelmed with emotions but felt she was still in control, a very different experience to the court proceedings itself.
Thank you so very much for not only your time but also for sharing your valuable professional knowledge, insight and experience. While we were unable to achieve settlement it was certainly not for a lack of your sincere determined effort and hard work.
Based on now having experienced a mediation the insight I gained is, that by nature the process itself of parcelling material possessions between parties excludes emotional considerations. Therefore, in line with my own values, both professional and personal, throughout the process I very much appreciated your Rogerian person-centered approach to mediation. At all times this proceeded with unconditional positive regard, sensitivity towards my well-being as well as respect and you facilitated multiple opportunities for me to create self-determined proposals.
It was a pleasure to meet and work together with you through that difficult process. I am very grateful we had the benefit of yourself as our mediator…
Let me thank you sincerely for the role you played today, I really respect your experience, guidance and your professionalism throughout your handling of our case. I felt as though you made every attempt to explain to me the position that we are in an effective and concise manner, it gave me much clarity about the proceedings. Throughout the day, you were very fair and handled the days affairs in a manner that alleviated the concerns I had about participating in mediation for the first time and you made a concerted effort to bridge the gap between the two parties.
Again, I would like to sincerely thank you for you work and dilligence in preparing to mediate in our case and your sincere effort and endeavours during the meeting itself. It’s my great desire that our case can move forward from this point onwards in a more positive direction and focus on the most important things in our lives, which is caring for and raising those two little boys
As always, the parties were in very capable and caring hand. I appreciate your time and patience today
Overall, I felt supported by you and you were able to provide insight into what was considered reasonable / unreasonable and I will admit I know I need to hear that sometimes myself too, so I did appreciate that.
I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending your services and professionalism to other couples in my situation as I believe you would be able to make a difference
Firstly, I was grateful for your time in our initial meeting. For a process that has been so slow for me up to date, the mediation process was quite quick. You called me that day and we chatted. It was nice that things just happened. It was also nice that I didn’t feel time constrained or that I was billed every 6 minutes. This gave me an opportunity to explain the nuances of the relationship. I felt that you were genuinely interested and wanted to know more. I also felt that you had an understanding of the complexity of the relationship.
At the start of the meeting, you got the situation. You already knew what [the other party] was like and how to prepare. This was a great weight off my shoulders and I expected that I would have to argue my case…. In that room, I felt protected and safe as ‘you got it’. J I appreciated that you were prepared and had a running script/ plan for the mediation. I felt in safe hands.
Throughout the mediation, I was grateful for the breaks and your prompts on what to think/ discuss and consider in the interim. I felt listened to as you took your notes on what I suggested
Thank you Joe, you did a wonderful job in a stressful situation. You were professional and yet were able to display empathy and understanding. I sincerely hope that I will not have to use your services again and will recommend you to anyone in a similar situation.
It was a delight to work with you, and I greatly appreciate all your assistance today notwithstanding the way it ended. Your guidance throughout the process and ability to reality test proposals and scenarios I found extremely beneficial, particularly coming from someone of your experience and background.
I hope to work with you soon!
Thank you so much for facilitating the mediation in this matter. It was an absolute pleasure to have you conduct the mediation and provide such valuable feedback. I do truly think that it was one of the reasons the matter was capable of settlement.
In terms of feedback – the process was great. It was also really useful to have a legal reps only pre-mediation session. This is not something that all mediators do however I think it is extremely helpful particularly in property matters.
Thank you again for all of your help. As a fairly new lawyer (in the grand scheme of things) and a sole practitioner it was such a pleasure to work with someone so relaxed but also so experienced. I cannot wait to work with you on many more matters in the future and will definitely be recommending you as a mediator to my clients.
Thank you for your pragmatic yet kind and considered approach to the matter
I appreciate that at all times you made genuine attempts to resolve for mutually beneficial outcomes.
I really like your approach. Having your insight from your time on the bench is handy and useful for client’s to hear. Also I like that you humanise the experience and connect with the client on a bit more personal level.
I’d like to thank you for your exceptional professionalism, knowledge, support and time today, it was greatly appreciated. I’m extremely grateful for the knowledge, strength and clarity I gained in moving forward today.
You explained and covered everything meticulously, displaying a patient, supportive and calm manner, and this made me feel heard, understood and invigorated in the process.
Joe, you have a exceptional ability to make a person feel heard, understood and supported, your presence today gave me the confidence boost I needed to persevere under the stress of the situation.
You have a high morality of care and justice.
Your knowledge is outstanding, I have learnt so much, both through our consultation, emails and mediation.
There aren’t enough words in the English language to adequately describe how grateful I am to have had you assisting today.
I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to talk with you prior to the session. I am deeply grateful you were willing to read a short note from myself explaining the context under which we find ourselves today. And I am deeply grateful for the calm, concise, articulate way in which you handle both yourself and these matters.
I am aware that the shorter the process, the higher your hourly rate, based upon the fixed fee, so I thank you for your patience and grit in working to the end.
I would have no hesitation in recommending you to another person needing mediation services.
I feel fortunate to have you and your well capable skills to help guide us to an outcome.
I think you’re a quality human, and I’m privileged to have met you, despite the circumstances.
Thank you very much for your work today, the mediation went smoothly and turned out to be better than my expectation. I did not think we were going to settle today, however, with you and [my lawyer’s] hard work, I was able to put everything behind and move on with life.
It was a pleasure working with you. Thank you for pushing the parties today. We appreciate very much that you were very considerate with our client while being frank about her situation. We anticipated today to be difficult.
We hope to work with you again in other cases. We appreciate your prompt replies
Thank you so much for today mediation. You make my day, and I mark today is my “ independent day “. My friends and family all call to celebrate with me
I greatly appreciate your help. THANK YOU
Thank you for taking the time to try and Mediate my matter, Unfortunately we couldn’t come to an agreement. I did appreciate your complete Honesty on the matter and the transparency, it was a relief. I guess I have a long road ahead of me and I’m glad I have a bit of an understanding of the courts path and decisions when it comes to my financial agreement moving forward.
Firstly, thank you for the initial meeting, I truly value your patience in allowing me to share my experience and was grateful for your genuine concern. I found this time important as you outlaid the framework and asked me to consider my expectations for mediation. This meeting helped to calm my nerves about the mediation process and assured me that I would have privacy and protection.
Although I feel we came very close to agreement on certain matters but did not reach an outcome I felt positive about my safety and well being as you guided us through the matters regarding child visitation and property. My personal thanks for asking how I was coping with the emotions and also providing breaks. I also appreciated how you took time to explain legal terms and I never felt as if I was ignored or treated as a lesser party. Please accept my sincere gratitude in making a perceived scary experience less frightening and helpful
The time and effort that you put into preparing the parties for the mediation was significant, and very helpful (from my “legal rep” perspective) – as it allowed the parties to “hit the ground running” and be better prepared to address and consider concessions relating to the bigger balance sheet issues, rather than discovering those issues in the early stages of the mediation, obtaining instructions etc…it allowed further issues to “rise to the top” (for example, equity issues) which could then be dealt with.
The difference I observed as compared to other mediations that I have been involved in, is that your involvement early in the process avoided two lawyers beating their chest / putting their best position forward, with no real progression in those cases until the day of the mediation. There was an aspect of clarifying / reality testing (opinion provided on the range) prior to the mediation which again as noted above helped the parties to be better prepared to address those issues and consider concessions. That opinion being based on all the evidence provided which was clearly considered and informed the view provided.
The flexibility and adaptability afforded to some different personalities allowed all parties and reps to identify the true nature of some of the issues which otherwise may not have been apparent. Again, very helpful.
The process was efficient, controlled, professional yet personable.
A great experience. Thank you.
Thanks you for your assistance…last week. Importantly, [my client] felt heard and validated after years of the other. I personally am grateful for your clarity and guidance through the day as we moved forward.
Today was very successful from my point of view and [my client] was very calm and coping well throughout, which I put down to your ability to manage the transfer of offers without the other party’s energy coming too – I really value this in your mediation style.
Your worksheets were invaluable and again, I really appreciate the preparation you put into the mediations and the support you offer to my clients
Your early direct contact with the solicitors – and the parties – was appreciated. I know that it calmed my client significantly and helped me prepare her for the actual mediation. It also allowed the solicitors an opportunity to discuss aspects of the matter relatively openly with each other.
Providing your early evaluation was also very helpful.
Thank you for your effort today. I will certainly recommend you as a mediator in future. I think you handled the mediation extremely well, including by avoiding to inflame tempers in circumstances where you could see that the parties had their own somewhat entrenched positions.
We did provide the worksheet to Rachael and found it useful in going through with her the difference between positions.
I really appreciated the case law you cited when you summarised contribution/future needs factors and also your commentary e.g. “uncertainty of adjustment”. It allowed us to put in [our client’s] mind that while there might be an issue to raise, the Court may not always agree and does she really want to spend tens of thousands for the answer?
Being a former Judge, you are in a unique position to reality test the parties with your experience in the Court system. I found that you were able to focus on the bones of the dispute and not fluff about. Your frankness was very much appreciated.
