by Brittany M. Stewart, Esq. – May 19, 2026
In my over 20 years of practicing law, I have helped a lot of clients litigate their claims, so I know firsthand how expensive, lengthy, and unpredictable the litigation process and jury trials can be. I have had clients with great claims see litigation that took years to even get to trial and then have to wait several more years for appeals to play out before ever seeing a single penny in damages recovered. Our state and federal court dockets are filled with cases that get stuck for years with no resolution.
As someone that has represented both plaintiffs and defendants, my clients have often indicated to me that they are seeking their “day in court.” Whether it’s a plaintiff who wants her grievances heard by a judge/jury or a defendant who wants a judge/jury to confirm that he did nothing wrong, people have a need to be heard by a neutral party that informal settlement discussions between opposing counsel does not truly satisfy.
That’s where mediation comes in! While a mediator is neither judge nor jury, she is a neutral party that can be a sounding board for the parties to whom they can share their pain, their feelings, and their ideas for the best resolution of the conflict that brought them into court.
As a trained mediator and qualified neutral, I have the tools to converse with the parties and ask them the right questions to help them get a sense that they have had their “day in court” while empowering them to reach for those ideas to help find a resolution to their conflicts. My goal is to help the parties find a resolution that they control and that is not left to chance.
Mediation provides the parties maximum control over the results of their case, without having to rely on judges and juries. Because mediation is completely voluntary, the power is truly in the hands of the parties. No one wants the resolution of their conflict to depend on whether the judge woke up on the wrong side of bed or the jury just found one party or another to be annoying or unlikeable. Leaving one’s conflict in the hands of judges and juries also tends to lead to additional months and years of appeals, as each party gets further entrenched as time goes by. Early case mediation can save parties (and their counsel) a lot of time and money that could be better expended moving forward, not stuck in litigation hell, while also giving the parties a sense that they were truly heard by someone that is neutral.
Please contact me by email or phone to discuss scheduling your mediation today! I am available to provide Zoom mediation sessions for cases in Minnesota (where I am a qualified neutral under Minnesota Rule 114) and Oklahoma (where I am an admitted attorney and on the OBA roster of mediators). I look forward to helping you and your clients resolve their conflicts!
