The Interaction between Mediators and Clients in Private Caucuses: Challenges to Mediator Neutrality

• In Event: 1567 - Section on Sociology of Law Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 1: Disputing

Abstract

Previous research has explored how mediation helps disputing parties reach resolution by means of an interactional organization in which a third party facilitates their efforts to create agreement. However, this previous research does not examine the private caucuses that mediators often hold with individual disputants. In this paper I analyze the individual caucuses that were held during four small claims and two divorce mediation cases. I use a qualitative conversation analytic approach to analyze the video recordings and detailed transcripts of these data, and investigate how the participants (both mediators and disputants) often formulate references to actions, events and people differently in the individual caucuses than they do in the joint sessions when the opposing disputant is present. The results of this analysis of how the presence or absence of the opposing disputant affects the interaction in mediation caucuses will be discussed in terms of their implications for the effectiveness of the mediation process.
While textbooks on mediation typically define caucuses and provide recommendations for their use, little research on what participants actually do in caucuses has been done. In this paper I fill this gap in the research by investigating how mediators manage the construction of neutrality and fairness when they are engaged in private caucuses with each disputant individually. Do mediators side with one disputant instead of working to display neutrality as would typically be done in the joint session when both disputants are present? How do the disputants change how they formulate positions and proposals in the caucuses as opposed to the joint sessions? This analysis will help advance our understanding of how caucuses contribute to the process of mediation between disputing clients.

Author

• Angela Cora Garcia, Bentley University