It was great working with you yesterday during our mediation together. I thought you had a very nice client, but I thought you made some pretty savvy moves, beginning with your opening, that really helped add value to your case, beyond that of your client's overall favorable impression. I thought it was a wise move to admit to the prior injuries and conditions, like your client's carpal tunnel syndrome. As it turned out, you stole some of the defense's wind from their sails and added a lot of credibility to your presentation and your argument. I suspect that's why you were able to negotiate a settlement $20,000 north of the $100,000 mark.
I'm telling you now that I'm going to be stealing that tactic from you when I mediate my own personal injury cases.
I am glad that your client was happy and I hope she realizes you did some good work for her yesterday.
I look forward to working with you again the next time you need to get one of your cases settled. For what it's worth, I've had quite a few cases where the parties agree to mediate relatively early on in the discovery process. While you can't ensure that you'll get good faith effort like you did with [insurance company lawyer], I find more and more that defendants are willing to do it early on and with great successes for both sides.
Greg Parent, Esq., Miles Mediation