What is Mediation in a Personal Injury Case?
September 2025
Mediation is a formal, structured process which tries to resolve a personal injury case. Mediation will often be required by the court as part of a scheduling order in the State of Wisconsin in personal injury cases. In mediation, both parties agree upon a mediator to assist in resolving the case. The mediator is often an attorney with extensive experience in the area of personal injury law. A mediator works as a professional facilitator to help the injured person and the at-fault party in reaching a settlement. One of the main goals of mediation is to avoid a trial. At trial, both sides are taking on risk as to outcome of a trial. Although many methods and models are tried to figure out what a jury may do, nothing in fact can duplicate a jury trial. The reason that nothing can duplicate a jury trial is that a jury trial is a human event. No one can predict how a jury will relate to a witness or judge their credibility until they actually testify and are subjected to cross-examination. Further, if mediation can bring the parties to a settlement, a significant amount of money can be saved for both parties. The money that is saved would have been spent on trial preparation, deposition costs, billable attorney time and expert witness costs.
At Herrick & Hart, we are routinely going to mediation with our clients. We have the experience at mediation to help you get the best result. We offer a free consultation on personal injury cases.