Q & A Table of Contents
How Can the Public Know Their Mediator is Qualified?
From: Mediator -- Alberta, Canada
Question: In your response to a question on the website, you had stated that there is nowhere in North America that certifies mediators. What are your thoughts about this process of certification?
With the growing popularity of mediation as an "appropriate" dispute resolution mechanism rather than simply an "alternative", I find that there is a considerable amount of concern expressed by potential clients about mediators' qualifications.
Are there any certification procedures? What are they? Are there standards? Are they monitored? I personally believe any and all mediators should have training in the entire field of mediation as far as necessary skill sets, as well as process.
Response: The reply to the questionner from Edmonton is based on my relative inattention to mediator certification since it is not a relevant issue in Massachusetts where I practice. Certification has long been a hot button issue within SPIDR, the Society of Professionals In Dispute Resolution, the international professionnal association of ADR professionals. If I understand you correctly, the two of us are very much in agreement about the need for certification so that the public knows that a mediator has demonstrable qualifications.
The absurdity is that there are programs such as the one you describe in Alberta, with the 185 classroom hours leading to a certificate, while, on the other hand I know a guy who wrote a book he was selling for $320US. He told his buyers (note I did not say readers) that after purchasing the book, they could hang out their shingle as mediators. Grotesque.
In my 'neighborhood' many mediation programs attached to the court system require their mediators go through a modicum of training. Court-related mediators are not paid here. The legal system in Massachusetts does not require that litigants go through a filtration process including attempts at mediation -- although many many courts do require something like that.
I am on the 'conciliation' panel of the local bar association. Once a year I'm called into the courthouse - as a volunteer - to attempt to bring litigating parties to agreement -- with a limit of 45 minutes per case. The volunteer 'conciliators' get perhaps one hour of training.
When I was certified by the American Arbitration Association as an arbitrator, the entire process involved filling out a questionnaire and, if memory serves, giving the names of two or three references. No training was forthcoming about practice, rules, or standards of any other kind.
One of my colleagues at TNSC is certified for international arbitration and mediation by a body in Switzerland. I do not know whether this is a public body, a private organization, or a 'quango'.
One internationally-recognized corporate client of ours uses TNSC to provide a training program that helps the company develop in-house mediators and ombudspeople. This is a private route for internal conflict resolution that works pretty well. We do not issue certificates; the company has determined that 'graduates' of our training are properly qualified.
If people are to feel confident that ADR is an appropriate way to go, there should indeed be a means for determining that providers have sufficient training. In addition, given the nature of the beast, mediators and arbitrators should be tested, not only for their understanding of the process and whatever rules may be determined to apply, but also for their
temperament. One major firm makes it a practice to hire retired judges as ADR practitioners. A judicial temperament is no indicator at all of a person's competence as a mediator or arbitrator.
Having taught the negotiation process and mediation to several thousand people from at least twenty-five countries, I am a great believer in the value of 'waging peace' rather than 'waging war' or 'waging law' to resolve disagreements. Certification standards for mediators and arbitrators is a crucial step in building confidence in the process.
Good luck and good negotiating, Steve.
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