Sandra Upchurch, mediation counsel for Upchurch Watson White & Max, recently added her insight to a story by Wayne Grant in The Ormond Beach Observer:
Don’t live with bad neighbors: County offers free mediation | Ormond Beach Observer.
"In non-small claims suits, parties are normally ordered by a judge to go through mediation, conducted by a private company such as Upchurch Watson White & Max, a mediation firm in Daytona Beach," Mr. Grant wrote.
He quoted Ms. Upchurch, who said, “Mediators serve as calm listening ears and, really, our job is to try to get each person to begin to understand the other party’s perspective and reach a compromise.” She was assistant city attorney for Ormond Beach from 2001 to 2009 and has been a certified circuit court mediator since 1996.
For The Observer, she said a dispute usually involves another underlying issue. "The complaint may be that a neighbor is walking his dog in their yard, but, really, they may actually be mad about not being invited to the neighbor’s last party, or maybe the neighbors' kids don’t get along," Mr. Grant wrote.
“A mediator’s job is to try to figure out what the motivating factor is,” she told the newspaper. She advised that people should try simply to be good neighbors and solve problems “over a cup of coffee.”
