Personal Injury and Workers Compensation claims make up the bulk of our courts' case load, and they have one thing in common that makes them a specialty in the mediation world --- they are claims for money between people who are largely strangers to each other. Even Equitable Distribution mediations often become money based negotiations. Applying traditional understandings of the mediation process to these cases, we know that we can often help the parties by facilitating a risk, or BATNA, analysis. However, traditional mediation theory does little to help us with much of what goes on in the negotiation of injury claims.

At some point, the usefulness of risk analysis diminishes as the parties begin to swap proposals for settlement which involve only amounts of money. So, what do negotiators and mediators do when BATNA analysis runs out? What role can mediators play when the parties have moved beyond analyzing the strength and weaknesses of their case?

This CLE course is designed to fill a gap in the theory of mediation process and to provide a set of tools to assist negotiators and mediators in any negotiation involving money claims. From our experience in literally thousands of injury-claim mediations, we have identified the numerous, and often predictable, stumbling blocks to successful money negotiations --- and have developed ways of understanding and dealing with them which will expand your repertoire of mediation techniques.

Additionally, and in response to the many certified mediators who have had no opportunity to discuss their settlement conferences with other mediation professionals, we will provide a panel of experienced mediators who will discuss and provide solutions to the problems and dilemmas submitted in advance by you and other course participants.

This course has been presented several times in the past few years under the title, "The Language of Numbers: Mediating and Negotiating Claims for Money."

This is a one day course in which you will learn how to employ the principles of "control theory" to deal with the many recurring problems that mediators find in the mediation of insured claims, including:

• The problem of "who goes first?"
• "I'm not going to bid against myself!"
• "Go tell them to give me a realistic number."
• "I'm out of here."
• "That offer's insulting."
• "Is that his best number?"
• "I'm not going to dignify that offer with a response."
• And many, many more.