Attendance at mediation

It pays to warn your counter party(ies) in advance of the team you propose to field at the mediation. Claimants in a professional negligence case recently waited until after 6pm the day before the mediation to tell me that they were also bringing Counsel and a witness of fact. The first the Defendants knew of this was when the Claimant team turned up at their offices at 9am. This very nearly derailed the mediation as the defendant team comprised just the insured and his solicitor, insurers being available by telephone.

Earlier warning of the proposed attendees, ideally in the Position Paper, would have allowed time for explanation and debate and have given the Defendant time to reconsider its own team.

The case settled, but only after much smoothing of ruffled feathers.