Location: Center for Mediation and Restorative JusticeMediation is the process of negotiation with the assistance of third parties. The third party called the “mediator” is the guide of the process who directs the interested parties through the beginning, middle and end phase, and hopefully ends the process, and hopefully concludes the process with a resolution of the conflict. In recent years, court litigation has been on the decline and the use of mediation has become the preferred method of resolving cases. Many courts in the United States require civil court cases to proceed to mediation before proceeding to a full trial. In Waukesha County, where my observation of mediation took place, Judge Mac Davis issued an order dated July 31, 2012, that all small claims disputes in Waukesha County are required to proceed through mediation . For all contested cases, after the Defendant files his or her written response with the court, the Complainant is required to begin scheduling mediation within 10 business days of the filed response. The parties may use any mediator they wish. However, if they cannot agree on a mediator, the Mediation and Restorative Justice Center must be used. George Hall, the mediator in the case I observed, astutely noted the benefit of mediation to both the plaintiff and the defendant as "would you prefer a group of strangers deciding your case or would you rather decide it yourself?" This mantra presented by Mr. Hall is very persuasive. Given the opportunity, most individuals would prefer to decide their own fate, rather than let a collection of individuals they never meet make the final decision for them. In this case, Mr. Hall's goal was to reinforce the idea that it was useful for... halfway through the paper... a competition over which side actually had the "stronger case" and when the mediation periods. encountered an obstacle, at which point he would step in as “neutral” and ask “unbiased and probing questions of the participants.” After getting the discussions back on track, he returned to being an observer. Mr Hall also sought to improve the relationship between the parties when necessary. A perfect example is when the participants were mostly on the same page regarding the liquidation of jointly held assets, except for some sentimental items that represented deep personal meaning for each person. Mr. Hall showed great empathy towards both sides on this issue and mutual respect formed between the conflicting parties, which made it easier for Mr. Hall to divide these articles and not let them unravel all the rest of the work done as collective to get to this point.