You decide, not a stranger
A judge who has read your file for twenty minutes decides what is fair. In mediation nobody imposes anything — if you do not agree, there is no deal.
Private mediation · Michigan · entirely online
Two sides. One afternoon.
Mediation is the conversation where you settle it yourselves — no trial date, no judge deciding for you, no year of waiting to find out. We run it over video, at a flat fee, and most two-party matters are built to finish in a single sitting.
Rather talk it through first? The fifteen-minute call is free and commits neither side to anything.
- Flat fee, agreed before you start
- Confidential by written agreement
- Nothing is decided unless you both agree
- Evening and weekend slots
$200
Your half of a two-hour session on the Direct Track. The full flat fee is $400, split evenly by default.
1 session
How we schedule a two-party matter. Longer formats exist for disputes with more issues, parties or documents.
0 miles
Everything runs over video. No courthouse, no parking, no day taken off work.
Why people choose it
The case for settling it yourselves
Mediation is not a softer version of court. It is a different mechanism entirely: one where the people who actually have to live with the outcome are the ones who write it.
Weeks, not years
A filed case moves at the court’s pace. A mediation moves at yours: pick a date, show up, and in most two-party matters it is finished that day.
It stays private
Litigation is public by default. A mediated agreement is a document between the parties, and only becomes a filing if you decide it should.
You know the number first
The fee is flat and published. You are not signing up for an open-ended hourly meter on a dispute whose length nobody can predict.
Side by side
Mediation and litigation, honestly compared
Court is the right answer for some disputes. It is worth knowing what you are choosing between before you commit a year to one of them.
Mediation
Litigation
Who decides
You and the other party. Nothing binds you unless you both agree to it.
A judge or a jury, after both sides have spent a year arguing.
Timeline
One scheduled session, usually. You pick the date.
Months to years, set by the court’s docket rather than yours.
Cost
A flat fee, known before you start, normally split between the parties.
Hourly fees on both sides, plus filing, discovery and expert costs.
On the record
Private. Nothing is filed unless you settle and choose to file it.
Court filings are generally public record.
The relationship
Survives more often, because nobody is declared the loser.
Adversarial by design — that is what the process is for.
If it fails
You have spent one session fee. Every other option is still open.
You have spent the year, and the fees, either way.
What it costs
Work out your number
Every fee on this site is flat and published. Move the controls and see exactly what a session comes to before you speak to anyone.
Mediator
Session length
Who pays
You pay
$200
your half of a $400 flat fee.
Flat fees. No hourly meter, no filing fees, no charge for the intake call. Longer sessions and document review are the only add-ons and both are quoted before they start.
Book with FredHow it runs
Four steps, and you control every one of them
Say what happened
A free fifteen-minute call. What the disagreement is, who is involved, whether anything has been filed. We tell you whether mediation fits — and if it does not, we say so.
We invite the other side
A neutral invitation explaining what mediation is, what it costs, and what it is not. It arrives from a neutral rather than from you, which is a very different letter to receive.
Both sides sign the agreement to mediate
Confidentiality, the mediator’s neutrality, the fee and how it is split. Nothing is scheduled until everyone has signed it.
The session
Video. Everyone together first, then private rooms as the conversation needs them. If you reach terms, you leave with a written summary of them the same day — and instructions to have your own attorney review it.
Two mediators
Pick the one your matter actually needs
Same process, same platform, same neutrality. The difference is experience, price and how soon you can get a slot — and for most disputes, the cheaper answer is the right one.
Fred Ross
Mediator · Direct Track
Early in his mediation practice, and priced for it. If your matter needs decades of courtroom experience we will tell you on the intake call.
$400
flat, two-hour session
$200 each if you split it
$200 each if you split it
- Completed the National Association of Certified Mediators’ 40-hour mediator certification course
- Facilitative only — he runs the conversation, he does not grade your case
- Evenings and weekends, usually within a few business days
- Built the video and scheduling platform this centre runs on
- Not an attorney, and cannot give either side legal advice
Stuart Sandweiss
Attorney–mediator · Counsel Track
Acting as a neutral, not as your lawyer — he does not represent either side in a mediation and does not give legal advice in the session.
$950
flat, two-hour session
$475 each if you split it
$475 each if you split it
- Decades of Michigan litigation and bankruptcy practice
- Founder of Legal Solutions Group
- Built for filed cases, represented parties and higher-value disputes
- Document review beyond the first hour at $375/hour
- Weekday business hours, typically two to three weeks out
Not sure which
Four questions
No email required, nothing is sent anywhere. This runs entirely in your browser.
Has a case been filed in court?
Does anyone have a lawyer?
Roughly what’s at stake?
How soon do you want this resolved?
What we mediate
Disputes between people who still have to deal with each other
Most of what we see is not exotic. It is two parties who each have a reasonable version of events and no cheap way to close the gap.
Divorce & family
Property, parenting time, support and the practical logistics of separating two lives.
Business & partnership
Buy-outs, deadlocked owners, departing partners, and disputes that will outlive the argument.
Contracts & vendors
Work that was not delivered, invoices that were not paid, and terms that meant different things to each side.
Real estate & construction
Boundaries, defects, punch lists, earnest money, and landlord–tenant matters.
Workplace
Internal disputes, exits, and disagreements that HR cannot resolve from inside the organisation.
Probate & family property
Estates, inherited property, and the family arguments underneath them.
Common questions
The things people ask on the first call
The answer to the first one surprises most people, so it is worth reading even if you think you know how mediation works.
Is the mediator my lawyer?
No, and this is the most important thing to understand about mediation. A mediator is a neutral. They do not represent you, they do not represent the other side, and they do not give legal advice to anybody in the room. Their job is to run a conversation that has stopped working and help you find terms you can both live with.
You are free to bring your own attorney to a session, and we recommend having one review anything before you sign it.
Is what we agree binding?
Not by itself. If you reach terms, the mediator writes up a plain-language summary of what you agreed — a memorandum of understanding. That document records the deal; it is not drafted as a binding contract or a court order.
To make it binding, your attorneys turn it into a settlement agreement, or, if a case is already filed, into a consent judgment or stipulated order for the court to enter. We will tell you plainly which one your situation needs.
Is it confidential?
Two things protect a session. First, everyone signs an agreement to mediate before we start, and that agreement includes confidentiality. Second, if your case is already filed in a Michigan court, mediation communications are also covered by the court rule on mediation confidentiality.
There are limits to any confidentiality promise — threats of harm and certain reporting obligations are the usual ones. The agreement you sign spells them out before you say anything.
What if the other side won’t agree to mediate?
Then there is no mediation. It is voluntary, and a session only happens if both sides show up willingly.
What we can do is send a neutral invitation that explains what mediation is, what it costs, and what it is not. It arrives from a neutral rather than from your side, which is a different letter to receive. Plenty of people say yes to that who would not say yes to you.
Do we both have to pay?
The default is that the fee is split evenly, because a neutral who is paid by one side is not much of a neutral. That said, parties do sometimes agree that one side covers it — as part of a negotiation, or because of a real difference in means. Either arrangement is fine as long as both sides know about it and agree in writing before we start.
Start with a free fifteen minutes
Tell us roughly what is going on and we will tell you whether mediation fits. If it does not, we will say that instead.
Book the room, not the fight.
Pick a mediator, pick a time, and have the conversation that ends this.