Resolve your civil case
before it reaches trial.

$1,995 per person on Zoom, flat, which is $3,990 for both sides. In person, it’s $2,295 per person at a St. Paul-area conference room, or $2,795 per person near your county courthouse, anywhere in Minnesota. There is no hourly billing.

Every option includes a private call with each side, homework and written questions, and one prepared three-hour session. One side can pay for both, or you can split it. Attorney fees and court costs are separate.

Tell us the date on the free call. The plan is built backward from it: the one-on-ones first, homework next, then the session, with room left before the deadline.

If the calendar can’t fit your date, we’ll tell you on the call.

Yes. A lawyer is welcome on their client’s private call and in the session. The side without one gets the same time, the same kind of questions, and the same process.

We don’t give legal advice to either side. Either side can have an attorney review the written summary before anything is signed.

No. We don’t file anything, contact the court, or tell the judge what anyone said. If your order asks the parties to tell the court that mediation happened, you or your attorney handle that.

Your order and the court’s rules answer that, not us. Check with your attorney or the court administrator before you book.

If your case does call for one, Kate McLaughlin is a Qualified Neutral under Rule 114 of the Minnesota General Rules of Practice. Say so on the free call and Kate will be your mediator.

Meet Kate →

You do. Both sides. A mediator doesn’t rule on the case, find facts, or pick a number. The mediator structures the conversation and makes sure both sides are working from the same page.

If you don’t settle, the case goes on as it was. That decision belongs to the judge, not to the mediator.

That’s a common place to start. You can book the free call on your own and send the other side, or their lawyer, this page.

Nothing is scheduled until both sides have said yes.

No. Neither side hears the other’s call, and nothing from it goes to the other side without your permission.

Start with what you’ve already filed, and the documents your numbers come from. You don’t need to argue the case again. The homework asks for what you’d want on the table if this settles.

You leave with a written summary of the decisions both sides made. It isn’t a court filing.

We help two people who don't agree on really tricky issues come to an agreement and put that agreement in writing. We don't draft court documents, we don't file, we don't do anything with the courts, and we don't give legal advice.

Either side’s attorney can review it or turn it into a signed settlement. What gets filed with the court, and when, is up to the parties and their lawyers.

Ryan McLaughlin, who founded Flannel People Mediation, or Kate McLaughlin. Either one runs the whole process, start to finish. If your case calls for a Rule 114 Qualified Neutral, that’s Kate.

Both are mediators. Neither practices law or gives legal, tax, accounting, or valuation advice.