Conciliation

Although self-represented individuals do participate in conciliation, it is more usual for conciliations to include parties and their attorneys. Attorney Amy Wanger considers each side’s view of the facts and the law and will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the presentations. Then, she can work to actively suggest settlement positions, and may provide feedback on likely outcomes if litigation is pursued.

Conciliations are more commonly pursued after a matter is filed in Court, while mediations frequently occur before parties have filed anything in Court, or hired attorneys.

Parties successfully use conciliation to move cases bogged down in the system or to resolve a small number of difficult issues, or perhaps to inject an outside voice of reason in the settlement negotiations.