Mediation places a trained neutral between the parties, not to decide the case but to help them find a resolution they can both live with. The mediator has no power to impose an outcome; the parties keep full control over whether to settle and on what terms. Sessions are typically confidential and statements made during them are generally inadmissible if the case does not settle, which is meant to encourage candor. Mediation can be purely facilitative, where the mediator manages the conversation, or evaluative, where the mediator (often a retired judge or seasoned litigator) offers a candid view of each side's exposure to move the numbers.

A typical session opens with a joint conversation, then splits into separate caucuses where the mediator shuttles offers, tests assumptions, and probes for the real sticking points, which are often about risk tolerance and control as much as dollars. There are no rules of evidence and no record. If the parties reach agreement, it is usually reduced to a signed term sheet or settlement agreement that is enforceable as an ordinary contract, not as a court judgment, unless it is later entered as one. If no agreement is reached, the case simply continues in litigation.

Mediation is fundamentally a negotiation over each side's best alternative to a negotiated agreement, and that alternative is exactly what a modeled expected value is meant to estimate. Juricratic does not tell a user what to accept in mediation; it lets them model the litigation branch they would face if mediation fails, sweep the contested assumptions behind that number, and see how much room actually exists between the two sides' walk-away points before they sit down. Because a mediator's evaluative read is itself just another informed opinion rather than a ruling, treating it as one more input to a modeled range, alongside the client's own risk tolerance, tends to produce a steadier negotiating posture than reacting to whatever number the mediator floats in the room that day.

Courts in most federal and state systems now routinely order or strongly encourage mediation before trial, so nearly every civil litigator uses it repeatedly across a caseload. Insurers, in-house counsel, and plaintiffs' firms rely on it to resolve cases without the cost and exposure of trial, and mediators are chosen specifically for credibility with both sides. Going in with a defensible number, rather than a gut feeling, is what separates a productive session from a wasted day.