Pay For Mediators Threatens the Status Quo

I'm thrilled to see more ADR professionals sharing their thoughts on mediator compensation in court-based settings. A recent article by Charles Parselles, a California mediator, at Mediate.com does an excellent job of illustrating the tremendous financial burden that mediators face.

Did you know that if a volunteer mediator did just 5 mediations a month that he or she would lose about $75K in opportunity costs and realize less thats $9K in actual paid work? That's quite a wake up call to any mediator who thinks that volunteering will lead to a robust career.

Paying mediators fairly threatens the status quo for key stakeholders like the courts and the organized bar. There seems to be very little incentive for either group to change a system that works for them from a financial and productivity standpoint.

The question is what are we going to do about that? If we consider ourselves to be invaluable resources, why do we continue to accept being treated otherwise?

Try. Fail. Learn. Grow.

Dina