Participant Actions and Intermediate Outcomes in Initial Joint Sessions and Initial Caucuses

Historically, the initial mediation session usually was a joint session where the mediator and the disputants met together to exchange information and discuss the substance of the dispute. Accordingly, the main components of the initial mediation session and the informational and communication benefits they were thought to provide were discussed in the context of the disputants being together and speaking directly. Today, however, many actions that traditionally took place during the initial joint session, including the discussion of substantive matters and exchanges between the parties, are less likely to occur during initial joint sessions than they did historically and are more likely to take place during initial separate caucuses. These changes lead to questions about whether the actions historically discussed as contributing to mediation outcomes (a) still show these relationships in initial joint sessions today and (b) have the same benefits when they take place during initial caucuses instead of during initial joint sessions.