Sometimes we mediators get caught in a conversation with ourselves and, in the process, get farther and farther away from what the attorneys who seek our assistance need from us.

Diane Levin has a series of articles on this topic, Bridging the Divide Between Lawyers and Mediators, which is a must read for all of us.  

I'm linking to her series here, as well as to some of the trial attorney and other blogs that think deeply and well about the mediation process and have much to teach us mediators.

Time prevents the full list this morning but I'll supplement this post this afternoon.

What triggered this thinking was Tampa Bay personal injury attorney Bob Carroll's excellent blog at injuryboard.com, The Litigation Process.

Diana Skaggs' Louisville Divorce Law Journal pays more attention to alternate dispute resolution than any practicing attorney blog I'm aware of.  Her insights are spot-on, her knowledge broad and her wisdom, well, wise.  Check it out!

Do not pass go!  Click the link here to the truly brilliant, multi-authored  Trial Lawyer Resource Center Trial Tips from Trial Lawyers Blog.  The blog's self-description is a vast understatement -- something we don't generally expect from trial lawyers:

Trial Tips from Trial Lawyers You've found the blog where a number of the USA's top trial attorneys join together with litigation experts to lend their expertise on topics that matter in your trial practice. Gain insight in case selection, work up, trial strategy, evidence, and post settlement issues. Contributors will reqularly share their real life experiences and knowledge to help you represent injured consumers.  

And it's not just the settlement/mediation tips that will grab your attention.  Trial lawyers put the passion, wit, loss, longing, love and fury back into the dry legalisms of their clients' claims.  Because that's what we mediators do as well, you'll find cruising the Trial Lawyer Resource Center an endless source of inspiration.