Our latest study on the benefits of Early Caucus has been published on line: “Can early caucus improve a community mediation model? Counteracting stressors prior to joint session.” It is available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15411508 or you may contact me directly at jtanz@chicagomediation.com for a copy of the manuscript.
The paper describes a three part study of a short caucus between each party and the mediator prior to joint session. We found both parties and mediators perceived that this Early Caucus provided countermeasures to the typical stressors found in joint session and helped the mediator prepare for joint session. We also found that a pre-session caucus Improved parties’ perceptions that the mediator understood and respected them and had no deleterious effect on the mediation session.