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This website is authored by Lester Levy, Esq.
a founding member of JAMS.

  • About
    • About Lester Levy
  • The Basics of Environmental Mediation
    • What types of Environmental Cases can be mediated?
    • The Benefits of Environmental Mediation
    • The Environmental Mediation Process
    • Insurance Company Involvement
    • The Mediation Outcome
  • Case Studies
    • Case Study 1: Objectivity as Resolution Tool Provided Through A Neutral Expert
    • Case Study 2: Working Together
    • Case Study 3: Swift, Fair and Efficient: Awarding Compensation to Toxic Tort Victims
    • Case Study 4: Sequenced Regulatory and Insurance Negotiations
    • Case Study 5: How Communication Both Causes and Ends Conflict
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You are here: Home / The Basics of Environmental Mediation

The Basics of Environmental Mediation

the basics of environmental mediationWhat is Environmental Mediation?

Environmental Mediation is a rigorous, but flexible, process where the parties negotiate hard — on the merits — resolve the issues at the core of the conflict and then establish a workable, enforceable framework for implementing agreements for cleanup and/or compensation.

Many of these cases are high risk, expensive to try, handled by extremely competent professionals and, therefore, a well designed and implemented environmental mediation provides the perfect forum in which to intelligently evaluate and resolve their differences.

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS

Mediation is not a wholesale substitute for the litigation process. Most cases are settled by lawyers and their clients without the assistance of a mediator. Others are resolved through motion practice or by trial. Therefore, not every case will benefit from mediation. But there are many others, in my view, which would.

Some conventional litigators deride mediation as too amorphous, weak-willed, and unable to “get the job done.” I have heard said that if they, themselves, cannot not settle the case no one else could help them do so. Others fear a loss of control over the matter. Neither of these concerns is holds water.

A well-executed mediation can deliver an exceptional result without generating the same transactional costs that are normally incurred in traditional high stakes litigation. Mediation has fewer technical and tactical delays because its progress is driven entirely by the parties themselves. The results can be more valuable because mediation outcomes are not limited to any one “remedy.”

Furthermore, there is no loss of control as feared by some. To the contrary, the parties and their lawyers can be as involved as they wish in the process’ design and, most importantly, there can be no agreement without the consent of all parties. An unwanted result may never be imposed on a party through mediation.

  • The Basics of Environmental Mediation
  • What types of Environmental Cases can be mediated?
  • The Benefits of Environmental Mediation
  • The Environmental Mediation Process
  • Insurance Company Involvement
  • The Mediation Outcome
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My Latest Posts

  • The inter-generational theft of Brexit and climate change
  • Our Drinking Water Regulation Is So Weak Even Flint’s Water Got A Pass
  • Environmental Mediation: A New Paradigm for Resolving Multi-Party Disputes
  • Flexibility Is Key to Success in Mediation
  • Leaving the EU would put our environment at risk

About Me

lester-levy

I strongly believe in the value of mediation – said another way, environmental mediation really works. I would go even further: I believe that environmental disputes are perfectly suited to the mediation process – perhaps more so than any other area of legal practice. I have formed these views after mediating environmental cases for more than 20 years, throughout the United States, and having worked with thousands of lawyers, companies, insurance carriers, regulatory agencies and courts. My … Read more

My Latest Posts

  • The inter-generational theft of Brexit and climate change
  • Our Drinking Water Regulation Is So Weak Even Flint’s Water Got A Pass
  • Environmental Mediation: A New Paradigm for Resolving Multi-Party Disputes
  • Flexibility Is Key to Success in Mediation
  • Leaving the EU would put our environment at risk

Connect with Me

Lester Levy

JAMS- New York
620 Eighth Ave. (NY Times Building)
34th Floor
New York, NY 10018
P (212) 751-2700

JAMS- San Francisco
2 Embarcadero Center
Suite 1500
San Francisco, CA 94111
P (415) 982-5267

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