DANBURY, CONN. — Danish attorney Pia Deleuran has seen hundreds of parties in conflict arrive at the mediation table locked in bitter confrontation – and emerge at the end of the process with a sense of mutual satisfaction that no court verdict could have achieved.

Deleuran, a professional mediator who is among Denmark’s pioneers in the emerging practice of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), conceded during an Oct. 24 presentation at Warner Hall on “Ethical Dilemmas in Mediation” that traditional attorneys often have been slow to embrace mediation as an alternative to court litigation.

“Some lawyers would say ADR means ‘alarming drop in revenues,’ because they are afraid it will take their work away,” she said. To the contrary, she asserted, professional mediators recognize that many disputes can be resolved only through the traditional legal system, where parties submit their evidence to a judge or jury who becomes the ultimate arbiter for the case.

“But we must be very aware that the legal system is the last station, the end of the road,” Deleuran said. “Mediation gives people empowerment to deal with their own problems, in their own way. Mediation works in the shadow of the legal system – if you cannot solve a problem through mediation, you will still have the opportunity to resolve it in the courts.”

Deleuran visited WestConn in late October to offer two presentations sponsored by the School of Arts and Sciences and facilitated by SAS Dean Dr. Linda Vaden-Goad. In her Oct. 24 appearance, Deleuran provided an overview of mediation in Denmark, complemented by a series of images created by Danish free-lance photographer Sisse Jarner to depict important elements of the ADR process.

Deleuran drew upon her personal experience as director of a national training program for Danish attorneys in conflict management and mediation, a pilot project initiated in 2003 with the support of the Danish government and the nation’s judicial and bar associations. Over that period, she noted, more than 1,000 civil cases have been referred for mediation, and the ADR process has yielded agreements in roughly two in three of these cases.

She emphasized successful mediation requires that the parties to the dispute move beyond their conflicting demands to a mutual understanding of the other party’s needs and interests.

“When you start talking about ‘needs’ and ‘interests,’” she said, “then you have to answer the question, ‘Why do they have these demands?’ Then you can start to arrive at an understanding of each other, and you may find that each party’s demand could be satisfied by a single resolution.”

Another significant distinction between ADR and the traditional legal system is the philosophy that the goal of mediation is not to produce clear winners and losers, but rather equal consideration to both parties’ interests, she said. Court sanctions to impose judgments become unnecessary, she added, because a successful mediation should produce a mutual agreement that the parties themselves have helped to shape.

“In the traditional paradigm of the legal system, the responsibility for resolving a conflict is handed over to professionals,” she observed. “In the new paradigm, the parties themselves are responsible for resolving their conflict.”

During a question-and-answer exchange following the presentation, WestConn Professor of Political Science and Conflict Resolution Dr. Averell Manes, organizer for Deleuran’s visit to WestConn, noted an important element of the mediator’s role is to recognize when it is best to refer a case to the courts. “Sometimes the best thing is not to agree, but rather to walk away,” Manes noted.

“When mediators are striving to get their agreement rate higher,” Deleuran agreed, “they tend to be more ‘evaluative’ and put forward their own recommendations. You have to be very aware that the resolution to a conflict has to be not just your idea, but the idea of the parties as well.

“In the end, it’s not a question of having either mediation or the legal system,” she said. “It’s a matter of having both mediation and the legal system, and finding a way for the two to work together.”  

For more information, call Manes at (203) 837-8452 or the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.