How to Prepare for Mediation: A Practical Checklist
Mediations settle when the people in the room arrive ready to decide. Preparation is not about polishing arguments — it's about knowing your numbers, securing authority, and removing every logistical excuse for impasse before 9 a.m. on mediation day.
Two weeks out
- Confirm the essentials with the mediator's office: date, format (in-person, Zoom, hybrid), who must attend, fee and cancellation terms, and whether the mediator wants a pre-mediation submission.
- Send a focused position statement. Most Texas mediators prefer a short confidential letter — the claims, the procedural posture, the damages math, the negotiation history, and the obstacles as you see them. Five pages that are candid beat twenty that posture.
- Nail down settlement authority. The single most common cause of wasted mediation days is a decision-maker who isn't in the room. If an adjuster, board, or spouse must approve the number, get them physically or virtually present — or get written authority that covers the realistic range.
Know your numbers before you walk in
Decide three figures in advance, in writing, with your counsel: your opening, your target, and your walk-away — the point at which litigating truly beats settling once you count fees, time, appeal risk, and collection risk. Pressure-test the walk-away against the honest downside of your case, not the hoped-for verdict. Parties who set these numbers in the calm of the week before consistently out-negotiate parties who improvise at 4 p.m.
What to bring
- The operative pleadings and any dispositive-motion rulings
- Your damages model or medical specials summary, current to the day
- Key exhibits you'd actually show a jury — a handful, not a banker's box
- Any liens, subrogation claims, or approval requirements that touch the settlement
- A draft term sheet with your non-monetary needs: confidentiality, payment schedule, dismissal language, references
Set your mindset for the format
Expect to spend most of the day in your own room while the mediator shuttles. Expect the other side's first number to feel insulting — yours will feel the same to them. Neither means the day is failing; movement matters more than any single offer. Give the mediator material to work with in private: the arguments you're saving for trial help settle the case only if the neutral can deploy them.
Before you leave
If the case resolves, do not leave before a written agreement is signed — in Texas a signed mediated settlement agreement is enforceable, and in family cases a compliant MSA is binding the moment the ink dries. If it doesn't resolve, ask the mediator to keep the file open; a large share of impasses settle in the following weeks through the mediator's follow-up.
When you're ready to pick a neutral and a date, every mediator on the directory shows a live calendar — find your city or practice area and see who's actually open the week your scheduling order requires.