By the Templateez Team · Licensed Attorney · June 2026

Mediation & Arbitration Intake Forms: What Neutrals Need to Capture at Case Intake

A mediator who walks into the first session without knowing that one side has no settlement authority, that a trial date is six weeks out, or that the parties already tried mediation twice is going to spend the first two hours catching up instead of making progress. An arbitrator who accepts an appointment without confirming the governing rules, the scope of discovery the parties expect, or whether dispositive motions are contemplated is setting the arbitration up for procedural disputes that waste everyone's time and money.

Alternative dispute resolution depends on preparation. The neutral who shows up informed — who already knows the dispute type, the parties' positions, the settlement history, and the procedural posture — is the neutral who moves the case. A structured mediation and arbitration intake form captures everything a neutral needs before the first session begins. Here is what that form should include.

Dispute type: the category determines the approach

The nature of the dispute shapes every decision the neutral makes — from how to structure the session to which substantive expertise matters. A commercial contract dispute between two companies with ongoing business relationships requires a fundamentally different approach than a construction defect case with multiple subcontractors and insurers at the table. Your intake should classify the dispute into its primary category:

• Commercial / business — breach of contract, partnership disputes, shareholder disagreements, supply chain claims, non-compete and trade secret matters. These cases often involve parties who need to preserve a business relationship, which affects mediation strategy significantly.
• Employment — wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, wage and hour claims, non-compete enforcement. Employment disputes frequently involve emotional dynamics and power imbalances that require careful caucus management.
• Family / divorce — property division, custody and parenting plans, spousal support, prenuptial enforcement. These mediations require specialized training and often involve separate sessions from the outset.
• Construction — defect claims, delay damages, mechanics' liens, design professional liability, scope-of-work disputes. Construction cases typically involve multiple parties, insurance carriers, and technical experts, which complicates scheduling and authority.
• Personal injury — auto accidents, premises liability, medical malpractice, product liability. The damages analysis in these cases is highly structured around medical specials, lost wages, and pain-and-suffering multipliers.
• Real estate — purchase and sale disputes, title issues, boundary disputes, broker commission claims, landlord-tenant commercial disputes. Real estate mediations often have hard deadlines tied to closings or lease expirations.
• Consumer — warranty claims, lending disputes, insurance coverage disagreements, unfair business practices. These frequently involve repeat-player defendants with established settlement protocols.
• International — cross-border commercial disputes, treaty claims, foreign investment disputes. International arbitration implicates choice of law, language, seat selection, and institutional rules that must be established early.

The dispute type also determines whether the case is better suited for mediation, arbitration, or a med-arb hybrid — and that determination should happen at intake, not midstream. Practitioners handling the litigation side of these matters will recognize the overlap with commercial litigation intake, where the same case facts feed into a different procedural framework.

Parties and representatives: who is at the table and who has authority

In litigation, the parties are defined by the caption. In ADR, the question of who participates is more nuanced and more consequential. A mediation fails when the person sitting across the table cannot make a decision. An arbitration stalls when a respondent's representative lacks authority to stipulate to basic procedural matters. Your intake must establish:

• Party identification — full legal names of all parties, including entity names, d/b/a designations, and any successor entities. In multi-party disputes, identify each party's role (claimant, respondent, cross-claimant, third-party respondent).
• Counsel — attorney name, firm, contact information, and bar admissions for each party's counsel. If a party is self-represented, note that explicitly — it affects how the neutral communicates and structures the process.
• Authority to settle — this is the single most important intake field for mediation. Confirm that each party's representative has full settlement authority up to a stated amount, or identify who holds that authority and whether they will be available by phone during the session. A corporate defendant whose representative needs to call the home office for approval on any number over $50,000 is a different mediation than one where the decision-maker is in the room.
• Corporate representative with settlement authority — for entity parties, identify the specific individual who will attend and confirm their title and authority level. A general counsel who can settle up to $500,000 is a different participant than a claims adjuster authorized to $75,000. The neutral needs to know this before the session, not after the first offer is rejected.
• Insurance carriers — if any party has insurance coverage potentially applicable to the dispute, identify the carrier, the policy limits, and whether the carrier's representative will attend. In personal injury and commercial disputes, the insurer is often the real decision-maker.

Prior resolution attempts: what has already been tried

No neutral wants to repeat a process that already failed without understanding why it failed. A second mediation that follows the same structure as a failed first mediation will produce the same result. Your intake should capture the full resolution history:

• Direct negotiation — have the parties attempted to negotiate a resolution directly? If so, what was the last offer and demand? Where did negotiations break down — on liability, damages, or terms?
• Prior mediation — if the case has been mediated before, who was the mediator? What format was used (joint session, caucus, evaluative, facilitative)? Where did it stall? This tells the current neutral what not to repeat and where the actual impasse lies.
• Demand letters exchanged — has a formal demand been made? What was the amount? Was there a written response? The demand-and-response history establishes the negotiation range and tells the neutral whether the parties are in the same universe on numbers or whether there is a fundamental liability dispute underneath the damages disagreement.
• Early neutral evaluation or other ADR — has the case been through any other dispute resolution process? A case that has already had a neutral evaluation and the parties rejected it tells the neutral something important about the parties' positions and flexibility.

Case status: where the matter stands procedurally

The procedural posture of the case determines the neutral's leverage and the parties' urgency. A mediation conducted before a lawsuit is filed has a different dynamic than one conducted the week before trial. Your intake should establish:

• Pre-litigation or pending litigation — has a complaint been filed? If so, capture the court, case number, and assigned judge. Some courts have mandatory mediation programs with reporting requirements, and the neutral needs to know whether this mediation satisfies a court order.
• Discovery status — is discovery complete, ongoing, or not yet started? Parties who have not yet exchanged documents or taken depositions have less information and are typically less ready to evaluate their cases realistically. A neutral who knows that key depositions have not been taken can structure the session differently.
• Pending motions — is there a summary judgment motion pending? A motion to compel? A Daubert challenge to an expert? Pending motions create uncertainty that affects settlement calculations and can be leveraged in mediation.
• Trial date — is there a firm trial date? How far out? A trial date three months away creates urgency that a trial date eighteen months away does not. Cases with imminent trial dates settle at higher rates, and the neutral can use that deadline as a reality check.
• Appeals — if there has been a prior adjudication, is an appeal pending? Post-verdict mediations involve different calculations than pre-trial mediations.

Dispute summary: each party's position and the real issues

The neutral needs a substantive picture of the dispute before the session. A mediator who reads the parties' summaries in advance can identify the real issues, distinguish posturing from genuine disagreements, and prepare targeted questions. Your intake should capture:

• Each party's position — a brief narrative from each side describing their view of the dispute, their legal theories, and their key facts. Limit this to one to two pages per party. The point is not to brief the case — it is to give the neutral enough substance to prepare intelligently.
• Key issues in dispute — liability, causation, damages calculation, contractual interpretation, applicable law. Identifying the specific issues in dispute helps the neutral structure the session around the actual disagreements rather than the positions.
• Areas of potential agreement — are there facts or legal principles the parties agree on? Do they agree on liability but dispute damages? Do they agree on the contract terms but disagree on whether a condition was satisfied? Areas of agreement are the foundation the neutral builds on.
• Deal-breakers — are there terms or outcomes that either party will not accept under any circumstances? A party that will never agree to a confidentiality provision, or one that insists on a public apology as a condition of settlement, creates a constraint the neutral needs to know about in advance.

Mediation-specific fields: process preferences and ground rules

Mediation is a flexible process, and that flexibility means the neutral needs to understand each party's expectations about how the session will be conducted:

• Mediator selection criteria — why was this mediator selected? Subject matter expertise, judicial background, style (evaluative vs. facilitative), reputation for persistence, language capabilities, cultural competence. Understanding the selection criteria helps the mediator calibrate their approach to what the parties actually want.
• Joint session vs. caucus preference — some parties want to start with a joint session where both sides present their case. Others want to go straight to caucus and never be in the same room as the opposing party. Family law and employment mediations in particular may require separate sessions from the outset for safety or emotional reasons, as practitioners familiar with family law intake will recognize.
• Confidentiality agreement — mediation confidentiality is governed by statute in most jurisdictions, but the parties may want additional confidentiality provisions — non-disclosure of the fact of mediation, non-disclosure of settlement terms, or restrictions on use of mediation communications in subsequent proceedings. Capture whether the parties have already signed a confidentiality agreement or whether the mediator should provide one.
• Good faith participation requirements — is this mediation court-ordered? If so, the court order may impose specific good faith participation requirements — attendance by a person with full settlement authority, exchange of pre-mediation statements, minimum session duration. The mediator needs to know these requirements to comply and to hold the parties accountable.
• Pre-mediation submissions — does the mediator want confidential pre-mediation briefs? Should they be exchanged between the parties or provided to the mediator only? What should they cover? Setting these expectations at intake prevents the mediator from walking into a session with no advance preparation.

Arbitration-specific fields: procedural framework and hearing logistics

Arbitration requires more procedural definition at the outset than mediation because the arbitrator's decisions are binding. Getting the procedural framework right at intake prevents disputes about process from consuming time that should be spent on substance:

• Arbitration clause — if the arbitration arises from a contract, attach the arbitration clause. The clause defines the scope of arbitrable issues, the selection mechanism, the governing rules, and potentially the seat and language of the arbitration. Many disputes begin with a fight about what the clause actually requires.
• Governing rules — AAA (American Arbitration Association), JAMS, ICC (International Chamber of Commerce), UNCITRAL, CPR, or ad hoc? Each institution has different rules on arbitrator selection, discovery, interim measures, and award format. If the parties have agreed to modify institutional rules, capture those modifications.
• Discovery scope — arbitration discovery is typically more limited than litigation discovery, but the parties' expectations often diverge significantly. One side wants full document production and depositions. The other wants documents only, no depositions, and a two-week production deadline. The arbitrator needs to understand these expectations before the preliminary hearing.
• Hearing format — will there be a full evidentiary hearing with live testimony and cross-examination? A documents-only arbitration? A hybrid with limited witness testimony? The hearing format drives the timeline, the cost, and the amount of preparation required.
• Dispositive motions — will the arbitrator entertain summary judgment or partial summary judgment motions? Some arbitration rules permit them, others discourage them, and the parties may have strong views. A respondent who plans to file a dispositive motion on statute of limitations grounds needs the arbitrator to know that at intake, not after full discovery.
• Interim measures — does either party anticipate seeking emergency or interim relief? Preliminary injunctions, asset freezes, document preservation orders? If so, the arbitrator may need to act before the preliminary hearing, and the intake process should flag this urgency.

Damages and settlement range: the numbers that drive resolution

ADR is ultimately about bridging a gap between two numbers. The neutral needs to understand the financial landscape before the session:

• Claimed damages — what is each party's damages calculation? Break this down by category: compensatory, consequential, lost profits, emotional distress, punitive, statutory, attorneys' fees. The composition of the damages claim tells the neutral as much as the total.
• Prior offers and demands — what is the history of settlement offers? Where is each party's last number? The gap between the last offer and the last demand defines the range the neutral is working within.
• Settlement authority range — this is typically provided in confidence to the mediator. What is the claimant's realistic bottom line? What is the respondent's realistic top? This is different from the first demand and the first offer — it is the real range within which a deal can be made.
• Non-monetary terms — not every resolution is about money. Reinstatement in employment cases. A licensing agreement in IP disputes. An apology or public statement. Future business terms. Non-compete modifications. Your intake should ask whether there are non-monetary terms that could be part of a resolution, because a case that looks impossible on the numbers may become possible when you expand the variables.
• Liens and subrogation interests — in personal injury and workers' compensation cases, Medicare, Medicaid, ERISA plan liens, and workers' comp carrier subrogation interests can consume a significant portion of the settlement. The neutral needs to know about these interests because they affect the claimant's net recovery and therefore the claimant's willingness to settle.

Scheduling: availability, duration, and logistics

ADR scheduling is more complex than setting a single hearing date. The neutral is coordinating multiple parties, multiple counsel, potential expert witnesses, and potentially a panel of arbitrators. Your intake should capture:

• Availability — collect blackout dates and availability windows for all parties, counsel, and key decision-makers for the next 60 to 90 days. In multi-party cases, scheduling can take weeks if you do not collect availability at intake.
• Estimated duration — how long do the parties expect the session to take? A single-issue commercial mediation may need a half day. A complex construction defect arbitration with multiple parties may need five to ten hearing days. Getting duration estimates at intake prevents a hearing that runs out of time with three witnesses still to testify.
• Location preference — neutral's office, a party's counsel's office, a hotel conference room, a courthouse facility? In arbitration, the seat may be contractually defined and has legal consequences for the law governing the arbitration and the courts available for enforcement or vacatur.
• Virtual vs. in-person — fully in-person, fully remote, or hybrid? If remote, which platform — Zoom, Teams, Webex? Are there technology requirements for document sharing, breakout rooms for caucus, or recording capabilities? Post-pandemic, many mediations and arbitrations are conducted virtually, but the parties' preferences and the case complexity should drive the format.

Conflict check: prior relationships with parties, counsel, and witnesses

The neutral's impartiality is the foundation of the entire process. A conflict check at intake is not optional — it is an ethical obligation under every major ADR institution's rules and most state ethics codes. Your intake should collect enough information to run a thorough conflict check:

• Full names of all parties — including parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, and d/b/a designations. A neutral who has a conflict with the parent company of a named party has a conflict with the party, even if the parent is not named in the proceeding.
• Counsel names and firms — has the neutral previously served as counsel at the same firm? Represented a client adverse to one of these firms? Served as a neutral in another case with the same counsel?
• Key witnesses — expert witnesses and fact witnesses who will testify or provide declarations. A neutral who has a personal or professional relationship with a key witness has a disclosable conflict.
• Related matters — is the neutral involved in any other matter involving these parties, counsel, or the underlying transaction? Repeat-player dynamics — where the same parties or counsel appear before the same neutral repeatedly — create appearance-of-bias issues even if no actual bias exists.
• Financial relationships — does the neutral have any financial interest in any party? Any stock ownership, board membership, advisory relationship, or other financial connection? These must be disclosed even if the neutral believes they do not affect impartiality.

A thorough conflict check protects the neutral, the parties, and the process. A conflict discovered after the mediation or during the arbitration hearing is not just embarrassing — in arbitration, it can be grounds to vacate the award, destroying months or years of work.

Building the ADR practice from structured intake

A well-structured intake form is a practice management tool. It ensures the neutral is prepared, the parties have provided the information needed for a productive session, and the administrative foundation — scheduling, conflicts, authority, procedural framework — is solid before the substantive work begins. Neutrals who use a consistent, thorough intake process run more efficient sessions, produce better outcomes, and build reputations as professionals who take the process seriously.

If you are building a legal practice that handles ADR alongside traditional litigation, the Legal Bundle includes mediation and arbitration forms alongside 37 other legal practice areas, each with practice-specific intake fields.