Mediation Services
The Human Relations Division has several staff members that are Kansas Supreme Court Approved Mediators in the areas of Civil Mediation and Mediation Training. Our dedicated staff is committed to assisting individuals and organizations reach solutions that meet their goals, through a fair, open, informed, confidential, and honest process.
What is Mediation?
Mediation is a fair and efficient process under which an impartial person, the mediator, guides communication between people involved in dispute, to promote reconciliation, settlement, or understanding among them. The mediator assists the parties in reaching a voluntary, negotiated, written agreement.
When a complaint is received in our office, the parties involved may be offered mediation. The decision to mediate is completely voluntary for both parties.
What are the Benefits of Mediation?
Typically, the mediation process allows for a much quicker resolution of a dispute than litigation. Also, mediation is less expensive than litigation and less time-consuming than the formal complaint investigation process. But perhaps most importantly, mediation provides a mechanism for resolving disputes that does not destroy the relationship between disputing parties.
The mediation process encourages the participation of the disputing parties in the negotiation process. This is important since the parties are in a position to directly communicate their needs. Also, the mediator may be able to assist the parties in crafting compromises because information can be furnished in confidence to the mediator by both sides. This allows the disputing parties to reveal to the mediator reasons that a particular offer is not acceptable along with potential solutions towards agreement.
Agreements reached in mediation typically have a very high rate of compliance. This is because the disputing parties actually participate in the development of the settlement agreement.
What Happens During Mediation?
During mediation, both sides will be able to exchange information and express their interests and objectives, as well as possible solutions that they believe would be fair, equitable and mutually beneficial. The parties work to reach common ground and resolve their differences.
What is the Role of the Mediator?
The mediator's role is to guide the process of mediation in order to assist the parties in resolving their conflict. As such, the mediator is a neutral party and does not take sides. The mediator does not settle the conflict for the parties, but may make suggestions as to options for the parties to consider.
Confidentiality
The entire mediation process is confidential.
