PSA: mediation beat my lawyer's courtroom plan by $4k

I was in a landlord dispute over a security deposit in Wicker Park, 6 months of back and forth. My attorney kept pushing for trial, saying we'd win big, but every filing cost me. Finally I asked the judge for a referral to mediation, best call I made. We sat down with a neutral third party, went through the photos and receipts in 3 hours, and settled for $2,800 out of $3,500. Court would've eaten that in fees alone, plus another 4 months of stress. If your case isn't about a major injury or a huge contract, push for mediation first. Has anyone else had a lawyer fight mediation only to end up wishing they'd tried it earlier?

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holly70915d ago

Mediation definitely works for some cases, but my landlord tried that route and it just made things more messy. He thought he could talk me down and I ended up taking a worse deal just to end it. Sometimes having a lawyer push back hard is the only thing that gets you anywhere, especially when the other side won't budge.