Efficient and practical resolutions.

Mediation

Over the past 30 years, Tom Lether has participated in hundreds of mediations. These mediations have included multi-million dollar commercial disputes, cases involving municipal liability, multi-party construction defect matters, insurance and bad faith matters, multiple death claims, abuse cases, and professional liability cases. Tom also has experience with mediations in a number of jurisdictions throughout the country.

Over the years, he has successfully resolved, through the mediation process, hundreds of cases. However, he has noted that sometimes the mediation process is not as efficient or effective as it should be. He has seen reoccurring problems with mediators who do not do their homework before the mediation, do not conduct any follow up after an unsuccessful mediation in an effort to try to resolve the claim, or mediators who are more interested in telling war stories than getting a case settled. He has noted that nothing is more frustrating than paying a mediator who is unprepared, does not get numbers from the parties until three o’clock in the afternoon, and then quits at five ‘clock with no subsequent follow up. As a result, in 2012 Tom Lether began to actively mediate cases as a mediator himself.

As a mediatior, Tom Lether has subsequently mediated numerous cases. Once again, these cases include complex coverage matters, bad faith claims, multi-party cases and municipal cases for various cities and local governments. His closure rate is almost perfect. He spends time reviewing the materials and contacting the parties before the mediation. If the case is not resolved on the day of the mediation, he is not shy about following up in order to get the parties to come to an agreement.

His successful approach has been featured in trade publications including an interview which was published by Pacific ADR Consulting. Tom Lether describes his practice in the interview as follows: