Expert Shares Top Tips for Mediation Preparation

Preparation is key to a successful mediation, according to Kevin Quinley, founder and principal of Quinley Risk Associates.

During a recent interview he shared his tips on how to best prepare for mediation.
Quinley explained why adjusters are often wary of mediation.

“Adjusters suspect that the purpose of mediation often boils down to terrorizing them to pay more. Most mediators’ and judges’ stances towards adjusters at mediation is like Cuba Gooding’s character in “Jerry Maguire” show me the money,” said Quinley. “The starting premise of many, if not virtually all, mediations is it’s not whether the adjuster is going to pay. The only question is how much. That’s not a starting point that adjusters or many policyholders relish.”

Another reason why adjusters are often ware of mediation is that “they expect mediators and judges to twist their arms and to extract and to disgorge more money, that the judge will posture about how the defenses are weak, tell the adjuster how the jury’s going to hammer the defendant.”

Another issue is the logistics of attending mediation, Quinley said.

“In many mediations adjusters can attend by phone, but usually adjusters are located hours away, far from the mediation’s geographic location. Many times judges require that the adjuster be physically present for a mediation or settlement conference,” he said. “So many adjusters have war stories about dutifully traveling to mediation and finding it to be a huge waste of time. Maybe the parties were too far apart, maybe the other parties were no shows. The adjuster ends up burning work days for a file where the investment turned out to be a time suck.”

He said the adjuster then gets backlogged with work.

Quinley provided six tips for adjusters preparing for mediation:

Quinley also offered three common mediation mistakes for adjusters to avoid.

According to the claims expert, it’s not always about the money.

“The personal touch can often be valuable in resolving disputes,” Quinley said.
An adjuster that shows empathy and compassion toward the other party can help drive the case towards settlement.

“The moral is there’s a time to be a gladiator and to go to trial, but more often we’re going to need to be savvy negotiators, not gladiators. Increasingly, the forum for this is mediation,” said Quinley. “Whether you work for an insurance company, a TPA, a risk management department in their claims unit, you can boost your effectiveness at mediation and add another dimension to your value added professional service.”