For anyone going through a not-so-friendly divorce – or just about any dispute that promises huge attorney fees – chances are good that someone will suggest giving mediation a try.

And, just what is mediation?

While you might not be able to give a dictionary definition, if you’re thinking, “I’ve heard that term before in a news story about a federal mediator appointed to help resolve a labor dispute,” you on the right track.

In our experience, some of the best mediators are trial lawyers with years of courtroom experience giving them insight into people, problems and ways of helping them find solutions. Bakersfield attorney George F. Martin has practiced law since 1972 and shared insights into what clients and lawyers both need to know when in a mediation.

A confidential, problem-solving process

“Mediation is a process in which a person who is completely neutral–not taking anyone’s side–helps the parties examine issues in the case which have prevented settlement. My job as a mediator is to help them reach a settlement by encouraging open discussion in an emotionally safe environment,” Martin points out.

Lawyers learn that there are issues and then real issues. We asked Martin how he discovers those real issues.

“By law, a mediation is confidential. I make it clear that whatever I am told stays with me. When clients understand that, they are far more willing to then reveal the rest of the story, why the case has not settled, or even how the matter wound up in court.

“I tell clients they can say anything they want about the case or parties involved and it will not be used against them.”

What does a mediation look like?

Let’s say it’s a divorce case and all efforts at settlement have gone nowhere, so the Court or lawyers have agreed that mediation is the next step. Martin outlined what clients should expect, and, especially, how they should not act:

1. A mediation will be typically conducted either at the mediator’s or lawyer’s office. There will be a number of forms to fill out, the mediator will tell the couple and their lawyers what is expected, and what must be avoided.

2. Yes, it can be difficult, but I tell everyone to please leave hard feelings behind when you come in. Mediators understand these are some of the most difficult times in anyone’s life. Our job is to help you both reach a settlement that is fair and something you can live with.

3. It is often necessary to speak with the lawyers and parties separately and to brief them on the wishes expressed by the other side. Please do not become suspicious as this is part of the process.

4. In very real ways a successful mediation will help you get along with the rest of your life. Your positive attitude, a willingness to compromise and to be fair is the key to success.

Check out the mediator

Lemoore reader “Ellen” went through a divorce mediation conducted by a Fresno criminal defense attorney who, we discovered, has no formal dispute resolution training. They met on three separate occasions, and “reached a settlement,” the “mediator” told us.

Only, there was a monumental problem. The agreement was not written up! While Ellen’s husband was prepared to accept its terms, she was not, and the longer we spoke, it was clear that suited her just fine.

“When you left the mediator office, did you intend to honor the terms of the agreement just reached with your husband?” we asked.

“Yes, sort of, at that time, but then I had some concerns,” she admitted.

And what were those concerns, we wondered? “Spousal support. The support that I would have to pay him. I don’t want to pay him anything, but since I am a teacher and he never could keep a job, I will have to pay him lifetime spousal.”

“So, let me get this clear, Ellen. During the mediation, you agreed with all the terms, right? Everyone left confident your divorce would be wrapped up quickly. Right? And then you have ‘some concerns?’

The real issue in this divorce became clear. It wasn’t spousal support. It was control. Ellen didn’t want the divorce. Here was a scheming and dishonest woman aided by a lawyer who has no business in the role of mediator.

Running Ellen’s story by Martin, he commented, “Once you reach a resolution, to be enforceable it must be in writing and signed. It’s got to be done right now or you have nothing.”

Dennis Beaver practices law in Bakersfield and enjoys hearing from his readers. Contact Dennis Beaver.

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“Filing your insurance claim after a wildfire is emotionally draining and should be done sooner rather than later to ensure your place in line is held,” says Los Angeles-based Karl Susman, an insurance broker for over 30 years.

He worries that a great deal of false and misleading advice on how to deal with claims resulting from California wildfires could result in substantial delays in claims being paid. Here, he answers questions that policy holders often ask and addresses how to deal with some scenarios.

I have to file a claim. Do I need a lawyer right away?

Start with the assumption that your insurance company is going to do right by you. Do not rush out and retain a lawyer. If it turns out that they don’t, then ask for a claims manager or supervisor.

If that is still not satisfactory and you feel the insurer is not being reasonable, then it is possible to retain a public adjuster (more on that later). If that still is not satisfactory, then and only then would you want to hire an attorney.

“Hiring an attorney prematurely or unnecessarily for the typical loss slows down the process of resolving your claim and can add considerable expense, as lawyers will typically be paid a percentage of the settlement,” Susman notes.

Also, for the typical storm/fire-related loss, hiring an attorney takes your claim to a completely different insurance company department. There are fewer adjusters who are trained to deal with attorneys. This will cause a delay — sometimes lasting months and even years — with no benefit to the policyholder.

Would it help me to file a complaint against my insurer about the valuation of my claim with the office of my state’s insurance commissioner?

“Generally, it is a zero-sum game,” Susman says. The insurance commissioner’s office will send a letter to the insurance company that essentially says, “Please justify your actions with this customer’s complaint.”

The insurance company will answer the complaint with the same documents they gave to their customer.

“Filing a complaint seldom accomplishes anything, but again, we are talking about the average claim. The exceptional, bad-faith case is a different story,” Susman points out.

Is it worth it to hire a public adjuster? I hear they have a bad rap.

The typical cartoon-character public adjuster shows up at your business or home after it has been destroyed, quickly signs you up and takes a piece of the insurance settlement, leaving you with much less than your own insurance company would have offered you.

“Propaganda,” says Susman. “Just as all lawyers aren’t crooks, there are good and some very poor public adjusters. In my experience, the main reason people are often dissatisfied with having retained a public adjuster is that the expectations of what a PA can do are not often met, and the settlement process can be slowed down considerably. I have seen instances where it took years to resolve a claim, and the insured got nothing different than what the company first offered.”

Insurance companies are not trying to avoid paying claims.

“The public often thinks hiring a public adjuster will in some way force the insurance company to do more,” Susman says. “But that is not how insurance functions. If you can justify the claim, the insurance company will almost always pay it. But they need to justify the payment.”

He recommends, “If you are having trouble getting a claim resolved, put on your claims adjuster hat and ask yourself, ‘If I was the adjuster, what would I need to see in order to pay this additional money?’”

My home business was totally destroyed. I have insurance, so what should I do?

“If you have a total loss like that, I would ask for policy limits,” Susman says. “What often happens is that when people have a total loss, and they realize they didn’t have enough coverage, instead of taking policy limits, they want to fight and get more. It is a zero-sum game, the worst thing to do. The message is simple: If you have a total loss, don’t try to collect more than your policy limits. It is a waste of time and money and will reward you with heartache.”

Some final, important recommendations

– Please, don’t forget that claims adjusters are people. They have good days and bad days just like everyone else. Their job is to hear from folks who are at their worst because something bad has happened. Try to have a little sympathy, a little empathy. Be polite.

– Don’t exaggerate or lie. This can nuke your entire claim.

– Don’t forget that your adjuster gets paid to settle your claim. They want to settle your claim, not reject it. Help them help you.

– Think of technology as your friend when claims people are pulling out their hair with so much to do. Providing good photos and videos to your adjuster will help speed the process.

– Review your insurance needs annually with your agent or broker.

Dennis Beaver Practices law in Bakersfield and welcomes comments and questions from readers,
which may be faxed to (661) 323-7993,
or e-mailed to Lagombeaver1 – at – Gmail.com.

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July 27, 2026  • By Dennis Beaver

If you are being billed by the hour for professional services, now is the time to renegotiate, as AI has put the billable hour on life support.

In January 2024, during his recuperation from surgery and radiation treatment of thymoma — an extremely rare cancer — Los Angeles-based attorney Aaron Shechet, “wanted to do something for my wife and law partner, Leigh, who proved what being there ‘for better or for worse’ means. She said, ‘Make an app that helps me bake better sourdough.’

“So I built an app to take pictures of her sourdough bread — AI analyzes the picture and tells how to improve it. It came out so good that I released it on Android and Apple.”

Then an idea came to Shechet. “What if I could develop a platform that helps service providers, accountants, lawyers and other professionals use AI programs that would save them hours and result in significant cost savings to their clients?”

Veilgrid was the result. “It is a platform that creates custom AI-powered tools tailored to specific business activities,” he notes, “such as drafting contracts, leases, various sorts of documents and automating related office functions, saving upwards of 75% of the time required to do the same work manually.”

AI impacts professionals and their clients/customers

Shechet has been a mediator and fee arbitrator in Los Angeles for years, and he has impressed me with his concern for clients trapped in billable-hour spirals. He sees a tsunami coming to those professions that view efficiency as their mortal enemy.

“With AI, the incentive is to be more efficient, as you will invoice on the completion of work, not the hours to do the work.”

He adds, “Clients do not care how the final product was produced — they just want results, the more economical the better. And they know that AI saves an enormous amount of time in producing reproducible items, such as contracts, leases, tax returns and so much more.”

A new standard of care

Shechet strongly believes that the new standard of care for law and other professions, figuratively speaking, will be a $5 charge with “AI quality,” instead of hundreds of dollars an hour with potentially less quality.

“What clients pay must come down,” he says. (For the record, AI is wrong sometimes, so someone still needs to check the work to make sure it’s accurate.)

He lists tasks where AI is most effective in law that would take hours to do manually and cost clients hundreds to thousands of dollars:

• Anything written, including contract drafting, pleadings, motions and discovery

• Summaries of depositions for senior partners that can be generated in minutes

• Legal research that requires dramatically reduced time

• Tasks that once took teams of junior associates weeks can now be completed by a single attorney in a few hours or even seconds

AI also works 24 hours a day. It doesn’t have student loans or employment insurance, it doesn’t complain, and it doesn’t face employee lawsuits.

New billing methods

Shechet and many other observers expect to see subscription models where a lawyer, accountant or other professional is on call to handle all the matters a client needs for a flat monthly fee.

“We should also see more per-job and contingency fees,” he notes, adding, “AI is no longer in the experimental stages for many professions. It is being widely adopted. Clients need to ask their lawyers, accountants and other professionals who bill by the hour, ‘Are you using AI to save me money? And if not, why not? Why does this professional service cost so much?'”

What’s the impact on lawyers?

I asked Shechet what impact AI will have on the human side of the legal profession.

“There will be little justification,” he says, “for massive law firms — that have been compared to pyramid schemes — to reward senior partners while demanding impossible 2,000 yearly billable hours from junior lawyers. That (practice) has invited decades of bill-padding and outright fabricated work and destroyed marriages and families.

“The need for lawyers will shrink, and hopefully, the ability to go home at 5 p.m. and have dinner with the family and have a life will return to the legal profession.”

For anyone considering law as a career

Shechet cautions that law can no longer be recommended as a safe, automatic path to a high-income career.

“But if law is pulling you, go for it. Follow your instincts, but do not expect the profession to look the way it did 20 years ago. Veilgrid came from following what presented itself: I built it for our practice, then other lawyers, then other professions, and finally, it became a platform.

And he cautions, “Anyone considering law should think very carefully about debt. Do not borrow an enormous amount of money because this seems like a safe profession. The supposedly safe, predictable part of legal work is exactly the part AI is commoditizing most quickly.”

Dennis Beaver Practices law in Bakersfield and welcomes comments and questions from readers,
which may be faxed to (661) 323-7993,
or e-mailed to Lagombeaver1 – at – Gmail.com.

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Mr. Beaver, we are weeks away from being involved in a potentially expensive lawsuit over a business that I sold to friends last year. The personalities involved are all very strong, and it has become almost impossible for us to be in the same room without getting in an argument in less than ten seconds. This transaction has nearly destroyed a 30 year friendship, and my wife and I are being accused of things we have not done.

Our attorney has recommended that we try mediation as a way to settle the matter. I believe that you have written about this form of dispute resolution before, and if I recall correctly, you occasionally serve as a mediator. I’ve heard both pros and cons about mediation, and have been warned that it is possible to be forced into an agreement that I will regret. Can you give a few recommendations for anyone about to try mediation? — Thanks, Julian.

What is mediation?

Long before lawyers, written law, and judges, there were mediators who helped people settle their differences. The oldest cultures and nations on our planet — China, Japan, Africa and especially where Judaism, Islam and Christianity took hold — strong traditions of mediation and conciliation developed.

Mediation is as old a concept as mom and dad helping to settle a dispute between brother and sister, or a village elder sitting down with tribal members fighting over ownership of animals. Mediation is, in fact, the oldest and historically most effective way that societies have resolved their differences outside of resorting to the courts or violence.

Today, it is the new buzzword in law, and, according to one experienced mediator I spoke with, “forces lawyers to use their skills to help clients fairly resolve a problem, something that for many attorneys — being fair — is a difficult concept to master. The legal profession has one major fault that mediation beats down very well; a feeling that lawyers must get as much as they can for their clients, without regard for the damage they are doing to long-term relationships. A good mediator preaches the message of simply being practical and fair for the good of everyone involved,” she believes.

How does it work?

In a nutshell, the parties in a dispute — before or during litigation — either agree or are ordered by a Superior Court judge to select a neutral person to meet with everyone and try to work out a resolution. The actual mediation usually takes place at a lawyer’s office, and some time before the actual mediation, letters or other documents are usually provided to the mediator, setting out what the dispute is about.

The most important feature of mediation is that it is a completely confidential procedure — which means that everyone involved is encouraged to be open and completely truthful, because whatever is said cannot be used in court. It is almost the only time in a legal proceeding where you can express real feelings, even acknowledge making a mistake, and what you say cannot be used against you in court, even if the mediation breaks down.

I have conducted meditations between neighbors over petty problems that eventually took on huge proportions. Once I was able to convince everyone that we were going to get this matter settled, rapidly a spirit of conciliation and openness filled the room. Stern faces softened to the point of tears. Once that happens, it’s usually easy from that point on, leading to hugs, more tears and the phrase, repeated over and over again, “I’m so sorry this happened, please forgive me.”
In terms of “cool” in the legal profession, things do not get any more cool than this, and I was the guy who pushed them all over the edge into settlement. In my opinion, before anyone is permitted to file a lawsuit, mediation should be obligatory. If it does not result in a settlement, you can always file suit later.

A simplified look at the process

A mediation begins by the mediator welcoming the parties, and explaining how the process works. There may be an opening statement, with each side setting out their position, and then the real business of mediation begins. A good mediator discovers what the parties truly need, and gently (but sometimes not so gentle) move them toward compromise. Meetings will usually be held separately with each side, as the mediator runs back and forth, room to room, attempting to bridge the gap.

If an agreement is reached, it must be put in writing and contain language making it admissible in court. This is a critical stage, and a potential weakness in the mediation process where settlement can occur at 4 in the morning, with important language forgotten due to fatigue.

Forced to agree?

When my reader speaks of “being forced to agree” to something that you might later regret, he is absolutely correct. “Mediators sometimes play games that are intended to break down psychological barriers to resolution,” my mediator friend stressed. “While things usually begin nicely enough — coffee and donuts, a very large lunch — the longer the mediation drags on, fewer the “creature comforts.”

“Meditations can last many hours, depending upon the complexity of the case, often into the wee hours of the morning with no one permitted to go home. This is a strategy used by some mediators intended to literally wear the parties down, to encourage moving off of an unsound position. Hunger, thirst, fatigue, the need — and sometimes refusal — to allow use of the bathroom, all slowly break down the desire and ability to fight over little issues. But when you quickly write up an agreement under those conditions — and sign it — often settlers remorse results, especially where the agreement might not be the product of adequate thought and reflection,” my mediator colleague cautions.

To sum it all up, I believe in mediation and recommend it, provided you are fully aware of how the process works, and understand the risks of saying “yes” too quickly.

Dennis Beaver practices law in Bakersfield and enjoys hearing from his readers. Contact Dennis Beaver.

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