Eastern Shore Mediation — James W. Fuhrmeister, Mediator

James W. Fuhrmeister

Mediator

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The Mediator

Forty-eight years as a member of the Alabama State Bar. Ten of them on the bench. The rest in the trenches with counsel and their clients.

He served as an Assistant District Attorney, then maintained a private civil practice for thirty years before taking the bench as Judge of Probate for Shelby County, Alabama.

From the Probate Court bench he presided over contested estates including trust construction, trustee removal, accountings and surcharge actions, fiduciary breach claims, guardianships and conservatorships, and the equitable matters that travel alongside them.

He now devotes his efforts exclusively to mediation, serving counsel and parties throughout Alabama in high-value probate, fiduciary, and complex civil disputes. Recent work includes a multi-million-dollar trust and fiduciary dispute resolved through mediation.

Eastern Shore Mediation is a full-time mediation practice. It is not a litigator’s side practice or an after-the-bench consultancy. Mediations are conducted in person at counsels’ location of choice anywhere in the state.

Practice Areas

Probate

Contested estates, trust construction, trustee-removal proceedings, accountings and surcharge actions, family settlement agreements.

Fiduciary Disputes

Trustee and personal representative liability; breach of fiduciary duty; guardianship and conservatorship matters; trust administration conflicts among beneficiaries.

Complex Civil Matters

Partnership and closely-held business dissolutions with intersecting fiduciary issues; multi-party commercial disputes; real estate and high-value civil litigation.

Approach

The mediator must be well prepared. Mediation works best when the neutral reads the record, fully understands the disputes, and works with counsel and their clients until a resolution is found.

Pre-mediation conferences with counsel are part of the standard engagement. Sessions are scheduled at a date and location agreeable to the parties. All communications are strictly confidential under Alabama Code § 6-6-26 and the Alabama Civil Court Mediation Rules.

Beginning an Engagement

Counsel weighing mediation are invited to send the operative instrument and the key documents in the matter.

Each inquiry receives a prompt and confidential review, and a candid assessment of whether this is the right neutral for the dispute, together with available dates. There is no charge for an initial conversation, and no obligation to engage. Where another neutral would better serve the matter, counsel are told so directly.

Once a matter is opened, counsel for each party receive a secure link through which to submit their pre-mediation materials. Documents are encrypted in transit and at rest and are accessible only to the mediator.

Eastern Shore Mediation is, by design, a lawyer’s neutral — engaged by counsel where legal and factual records matter. We serve attorneys throughout Alabama.