A made up conversation follows. It’s an amalgamation of conversations I’ve had with mediation trainees.

Mediation Trainee: I get it that mediation is about self-determination. Therefore, when parties ask us to give them an evaluation of their case, shouldn’t we honor that determination they’ve made? I mean they’ve hired us to settle the case, right? Don’t they need to know if their expectations are too high?

Me: Ah, good question. Yes, it would seem that to honor self determination, we would want to go ahead and take action when they make a request like that. The reason we don’t act on that request is that we have a slightly different understanding of what self-determination means.