Arbitrator In The Angry Neighbors

After I completed both of the Negotiation and Mediation exercises, I have came to conclusion and determined that I am definitely better at Mediation. On blackboard, you mentioned that it was difficult for you to even resolve the dispute, however, it did not take me long at all.
The “Angry Neighbors” exercise showed two upset neighbors. Jim was upset at the fact that his plants kept dying. Jim is fairly wealthy and spends a lot of money towards plants. However, Sonia is not as fortunate and she was the one to blame for over watering his plants. She was upset that he would rather spend money on plants rather than help people who are less fortunate. Obviously, it would not be fair to make Sonia pay Jim back for the damage because she stated her
“almost homeless” situation. However, I was able to help both Jim find a reasonable solution.
In the mediation exercise, I learned that you have to allow both parties to express their viewpoints. You have to allow both parties equal time in expressing their views and emotions, without any interruption. You have to establish ground rules so there’s no unnecessary name-calling. Lastly, you have to show that you understand both views so both parties are mutually satisfied. I did this exercise twice. The first time I did it, I allowed the argument to carry on too long without stopping it. By the time I stopped the argument it was already too late and everything got out of control. However, the second time I did it, I stopped it before they got angry at each other. This then allowed them to negotiate and I was able to find a reasonable solution.
This showed that having a mediator in this scene was valuable. If there was no mediator, Jim would have sued Sonia and they wouldn’t have found a resolution. Sonia could have potentially lost making her homeless. However, since I was able to listen to both view and helped them negotiate with one another. Sonia insisted on helping Jim with his plants in the future. Afterall, they came to an agreement and were both satisfied.
The next exercise was “Negotiate with Bill”. I was able to sell my collection for $16,500 and settle my need for immediate cash. However, at the end of the exercise it did mention that I missed an even better deal if I had negotiated a little bit more. I also did this exercise twice. The first time I unfortunately let Mr. Gimel walk away. But, I was trying my best to make the most amount of money for my collection as possible. I learned that I can’t keep pushing such a large amount or else the customer will walk away. You have to agree to come to fairly equal amounts in the middle for everyone to be satisfied. The second time, I was able to negotiate well enough where I was able to get him to buy it from me for $16,500. It was not the highest, but it was also not the lowest. I knew form the start I was not going to accept any less than $15,000 knowing that that was the amount of debt I needed to pay. In the end, I did make more than what I paid for the prints so I was happy.
In this case, I don’t think a mediator would have helped out the negotiation. This scenario was simply about the sales of an item; and did not represent anything against the laws or dealing with hate towards the other party. A product is something you can just easily just walk away from. If there is no need for the product, there is also no need for a mediator to involved. It was not like I was going to sue Mr. Gimel because he didn’t want to buy my prints.
An arbitrator is a neutral decision maker who is often an expert in law.
They pay close attention to issues and evidence from both views and determine who is going to be the winner and who is going to be the loser. They further assists in problems that most likely haven’t yet been completely resolved. If I was an arbitrator in the “Angry Neighbor” scenario, I would have choose Jim to be the winner of the case, since it was obvious that Sonia was the one ruining his plants. She admitted to ruining his plants, however she not give logical reason on why. In addition, she just kept mentioning that her phone was ringing and she had to leave. This proves she did not want to face the situation knowing she was
wrong.
In order to file this lawsuit, the plaintiff would have file a complaint.
Most likely Jim will begin this lawsuit asking Sonia to pay him back for the damages that she has done to his plants. After a complaint is filed with the clerk of the state court, a suit will be heard between both parties. The defendant, who is Sonia, must provide an answer to Jim’s complaint. Both parties have to show up to trial prepared holding both of their claims for the judge to make a final decision on the winner of the case. Again, if I were the judge in this case I would have made Jim the winner. He went out of his way to prove his
point.