Have You Mediated a Workers’ Compensation Case? What Are You Waiting for?

ROBERT G. HEYWOOD, ESQ.

Oakland, California

If you haven’t yet mediated a workers’ compensation case, perhaps it’s because you’re not sure what to expect. This article will acquaint you with the fundamentals of the mediation process with a view to increasing use of this valuable case resolution tool.

At the outset, it is not uncommon for attorneys to tell me that this is their first workers’ compensation mediation. Although mediation is used in almost all other areas of California law, it remains underutilized in settlement of challenging workers’ compensation cases. While there are different styles and manners of conducting mediations, here I discuss methodology that I consider characteristic of many mediators.