While there are certain elements present in every mediation, some types of cases are unique. A wage-hour collective or class action breaks the typical mediation paradigm. In most employment law-based mediations one expects:

• At least four participants with adverse or at least nonaligned interests—plaintiff, plaintiff's counsel, defendant and defendant's counsel.
• Limited concern over "opening the floodgates" to similar claims.
• Creative "value-adding" resolutions.
• A deep well of fact-intensive case law driving risk and valuation analysis.
• A settlement contract fully enforceable by the courts without oversight by the court as to the terms of that settlement.

And then there is the wage-and-hour collective/class action mediation. It's a different type of case, and as mediator of wage-and-hour collective class action cases, I'd like to share some of the unique aspects of these types of cases.