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Worcester Springfield Cape Cod York, ME Boston |
Born, reared and schooled in Worcester, Massachusetts with career roots in Boston and California, Attorney Maria Hanna Joseph is a traditional New England practitioner with experience in America’s most precedent-setting jurisdictions. She is now also among the well experienced in the highly specialized practice of Mediation. Attorney Joseph’s legal background lends to her effectiveness, having practiced as a litigator representing both plaintiffs and defendants. Attorney Joseph maintains a private mediation and litigation consultation practice. She has practiced employment and civil rights law for 13 years and has served as a mediator or mediation consultant, evaluator or facilitator in more than 1,500 cases. In each of her roles, Attorney Joseph assists parties on both sides make decisions consistent with their principles of integrity and prudence.
“ In mediation,” Attorney Joseph points out, “the parties maintain focus on mutually acceptable resolution and control over the terms in getting there. They lose that in litigation. “ In litigation, parties hand over decision-making power to a judge and, as a result, must live with the imposition of the judge’s focus, interpretation and sense of fairness; someone who has far less understanding than they do because litigation is just about the facts relevant for adjudication — only what’s necessary for the law to be applied. Not that the mediator is rendering any decisions or opinions, but s/he is helping the parties make their own decisions based on what’s meaningful and satisfactory, together. “ I think parties are attracted to mediation because the process focuses on them and what’s important to them and on the opportunity to air their perspectives in the context of their determining how things should shake out. Each party can fully explain his/her point of view. “ Also, parties feel safest in approaching a resolution process when they can correctly assume that their sense of absolute ‘right-ness’ won’t need defending or face scrutiny at the start. “ Mainly, parties are attracted to mediation
because its process, involving the expert help of a mediator along
the way, can help them achieve what they want to achieve —
resolution.” Bar LicensesCalifornia Education/Training
RecognitionCommonwealth of Massachusetts’ John Dunlop Dispute Resolution Award for Innovative System Design (Early Intervention Mediation Program, MCAD) 2004 Worcester Business Journal “40 Under 40” Award Recipient PublicationMaximizing the Potential of Mediation (co-author)
Memberships and Affiliations
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