Are there certain types of disputes where mediation is especially effective?

I have mediated commercial disputes, family matters, and housing cases, and I serve on two MCLA panels — the Family Program Panel and the Unlawful Detainer and Landlord-Tenant Program Panel. My focus now is primarily on family cases.
In a commercial setting, mediation is very effective at raising the level of information in a case — helping parties and counsel better understand the legal issues and how those issues affect the client’s business and personal interests. The difficulty is timing. Courts often refer commercial matters to mediation before the case is ripe, so it is harder to find two parties genuinely focused on settlement at that stage.
Unlawful detainer and landlord-tenant matters may be the clearest case of all. These disputes move quickly, the stakes are housing, and the parties are frequently unrepresented and badly matched in resources. Litigation tends to serve them poorly. Mediation can produce practical, workable outcomes — payment schedules, move-out timelines, terms both sides can actually perform — that a courtroom is not well positioned to craft.
Housing is also where language matters most. I mediate fully in English and in Spanish, and I keep my disclosure and confidentiality materials in both. When a party can speak about their own home or their own children in their own language, rather than through an interpreter, their participation changes entirely. They stop being a spectator in a proceeding about their own life — and that, to me, is much of what mediation is meant to accomplish.

What helps you reset after a long day of mediations?

My garden and my dogs. I work outside to release the tension of the day, usually with a bonsai I am tending, and the dogs keep me company while I do. We have had dogs in the family for many years, and they have helped all of us cope with the stresses of life. I also try never to skip the walk. Thirty or forty-five minutes clears the head and makes for a better, more productive day.
I discovered mediation in 2008, when my brother-in-law was going through a very difficult divorce. Watching it unfold, I kept thinking there had to be a better way for two people to settle matters more amicably. That question led me to research the field, and I realized that my legal training gave me a foundation to pursue mediation training. That is how the journey began.

Family matters are different. The decisions made — whether in litigation or in mediation — have a real and lasting impact on people’s health and wellbeing, and family mediation gives the mediator room to explore dynamic and creative approaches to genuinely difficult problems. There is also a meaningful difference between a family dispute already in litigation and one that has not yet been filed. People need to know their legal rights. But the first question ought to be: rather than having strangers decide how we solve our family problem, should we consider other alternatives?

Conflict, breach of trust, misunderstanding, and resentment are all a very real part of family disputes, and it is never easy to face those realities. Even so — and perhaps especially then — families are better served by a well-conducted, ethical, and principled mediation.