Fred Ross

The short version

Fred completed the National Association of Certified Mediators’ 40-hour mediator certification course. He is not an attorney, and he is early in his mediation practice. Both of those things are on this page on purpose.

Before mediation he spent his career building software — most of it for this firm, including the case-management, video and scheduling systems that run behind this site. Fifteen years of that work is fifteen years of sitting between people who each believed the other had agreed to something different, and writing down what they actually meant. It turns out to be reasonable preparation.

Why the price is what it is

Every mediator’s first hundred sessions happen somewhere. Ours are the ones you do not pay premium rates for. That is the entire argument, and we would rather make it plainly than dress up a new practice as a seasoned one.

What you get for the lower fee is a mediator with a light caseload, unusual availability, and a strong interest in your matter going well. What you do not get is decades of Michigan courtroom instinct. For a two-party disagreement where nothing has been filed, that trade is usually worth making. For a litigated, represented, high-value dispute it is not — and we will say so on the free call.

How he runs a session

Structured, and slower at the start than people expect. Each side gets to describe the situation without being interrupted, which for a lot of parties is the first time that has happened since the disagreement began. Only then does the caucusing start.

He is not a shuttle-the-numbers mediator. Most disputes that reach a mediation have a stated disagreement and an actual one, and the actual one is usually about being treated unreasonably rather than about the figure on the table. Sessions that skip that part tend to produce agreements nobody honours.

Not an attorney, and why that is not a problem here

A mediator is not allowed to advise either side regardless of whether they hold a law licence. Facilitative mediation — which is what we practise — is about running the conversation, not grading the case. Fred will never tell you what a judge would probably do, because that is not the mediator’s job and doing it quietly turns a neutral into an advocate.

If your matter genuinely needs someone who can read a case the way a litigator reads it, that is what the Counsel Track is for.

The platform

Fred designed and built the video and scheduling system this centre runs on. In practice that means the technology side of your session is handled by the person who built it, which is a smaller benefit than it sounds like right up until something goes wrong.