By Andy Zhou

I enjoyed my internship at Osgoode Mediation Clinic. As one of the experiential education components of Osgoode Hall Law school, it has offered me a great opportunity to hone my legal skillsets and improve my oral advocacy skills. From this program, I learned how to carry out client intakes at the court and conduct community and small claims court mediations.

As a member of St. Stephen’s Division, my colleagues and I would go to two locations of the Ontario Court of Justice to screen the cases each week. We often read through the case summaries to decide whether it was appropriate for mediation. On the court day, we would meet with the parties in the case and convince them to try the mediation services. What I found most interesting about the client-intake process was that we got to interact with people from diverse backgrounds. Most of them had never thought about using mediation services to solve their legal disputes before we mentioned this alternative to them; therefore, we had to explain the whole process and win over their trust during the interactions. The process taught me how to be empathetic towards both parties while helping them fully explore alternative options to resolve their disputes in a cost-effective manner.

For the community mediations, we partnered with St. Stephen’s Community House and tried to solve the disputes between community members. The mediation usually lasted three hours, during which mediators often strove to make each party acknowledge their own mistakes and understand the opposing party’s points of view. As the relationship between community members tended to be of an ongoing nature, we encouraged each party to make compromises so as to find a middle ground where the existing relationship between the parties could be mended.

On the other hand, the small claims court mediation was more challenging. The cases were assigned by the judge on the court day. As we did not know the parties in advance, we had to be very observant in order to understand their issues and power dynamics from the process. The parties often tried mandatory mediation before, so they could be very impatient. I have learned to use a number of strategies to cope with the challenges at hand through my practices at the small claims court. During the process, my co-mediator and I spent lots of time inviting the parties to reflect on their Best or Worst Alternatives to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA/WATNA). What if the judge does not decide in your favour? What if you need to come back for another court day? How about the legal costs? In addition, we used the caucusing strategy to understand each party’s expectations and concerns so that we could work to bridge the gaps between the parties in arriving at a settlement.

Finally, I appreciate that all of the mediation coaches that I came across through my internship are very easy to work with and knowledgeable in their practice areas. I would say that participating in this program has improved my oral advocacy skills and stimulated my interest in pursuing a career in civil litigation.