A NEUTRAL YOU CAN TRUST
“A mediation should feel like the most productive day the case has ever had:prepared, candid, and unhurried.”
HON. JAMES W. FUHRMEISTER (RET.)
High-stakes probate, trust, and fiduciary disputes. Engaged by counsel nationwide.
Former probate judgeten years, full equity jurisdiction, over these disputes
The record is read before the dayconferences with counsel on both sides
One all-inclusive daily rateagreed in advance, no add-ons
Trained at the Straus Institutethe nation's leading program in dispute resolution
Dates and conflicts confirmed within one business day
Every inquiry is held in strict confidence. An inquiry does not create a mediator engagement. Why I do this →
THE DIFFERENCE
Why counsel choose Eastern Shore
A former judge who decided these cases
Ten years of full equity jurisdiction over the exact disputes now at the table.
No filing, no docket, no audience
A private room leaves no record. The family's business, and the fiduciary's reputation, stay out of the public file.
The same neutral for both sides
Either side may propose him. Both get the same preparation, the same conference, and the same candor. The session is held wherever the matter sits.
THE MEDIATOR
Experienced. Candid. Trusted.
From its Fairhope, Alabama office, Eastern Shore Mediation is the full-time mediation practice of James W. Fuhrmeister, engaged by counsel across the United States, by agreement of the parties, in high-value probate, trust, fiduciary, and complex civil disputes. The session is held wherever the matter sits; the firm travels to the parties.
Forty-eight years as a member of the Alabama State Bar, ten of them on the probate bench, the rest in the trenches with counsel and their clients. Trained at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine, the nation's leading program in dispute resolution.
MORE ABOUT THE MEDIATOR →REPRESENTATIVE CASE
A multi-million-dollar trust and fiduciary dispute, resolved through mediation, without a public filing.
Representative of the probate, fiduciary, and complex-civil matters mediated. Identifying details are withheld to preserve confidentiality; each matter is unique, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
SEE REPRESENTATIVE CASES →
WHAT COUNSEL SAY
“After we tried and failed at self-help to achieve settlement, we asked Judge Fuhrmeister as a mediator to jump into our messy multi-party trust and estate dispute. Turned out Jim kept us together for the most productive day (and on into the night), to successfully resolve the matter. He knew the issues, kept everyone talking, and helped us reach a solution everyone could live with—without having to keep litigating and letting the court determine the outcome. He’s the mediator to call for a trust and estate dispute.”
BR
Bruce F. Rogers
Bainbridge Mims Rogers & Smith · Birmingham
Shared with permission. Every matter is different; no particular result is promised or implied.
READ ALL ENDORSEMENTS →
PRACTICE AREAS
Where the bench experience runs deepest
i
Fiduciary Disputes
Trustee and personal representative liability; breach of fiduciary duty; accounting challenges; removal petitions; trust administration conflicts among beneficiaries.
ii
Probate
Contested estates, will contests, trust construction, accountings and surcharge actions, family settlement agreements.
iii
Complex Civil Matters
Partnership and closely-held business dissolutions with intersecting fiduciary issues; multi-party commercial disputes; real estate and high-value civil litigation.
FEES
A single daily rate, agreed in advance and all-inclusive.
Time beyond the standard eight-hour session is billed hourly. Complex, multi-party, or out-of-area matters are quoted in advance as a single all-inclusive fee. A deposit reserves the date, and the fee is divided equally among the parties.
THE STANDARD DAY COVERS
Preparation: the record and pre-mediation conferencesIncluded
A full eight-hour sessionIncluded
Reasonable follow-up after the sessionIncluded
TravelIncluded
Administrative or case-management feesNone
FROM THE BENCH
For ten years I watched families walk into my courtroom whole and walk out divided: the estate consumed by the fight over it, the relationships gone with the money.
The cases that ended well were almost never the ones I decided. They were the ones the parties settled early, privately, on their own terms, while there was still something left to divide and someone left to speak to at Thanksgiving.
That is why this practice exists.
Hon. James W. Fuhrmeister (Ret.)
MY APPROACH
Three things counsel can count on
Preparation
The record is read before the day begins: the operative instruments, the pleadings, the accounting. Pre-mediation conferences with counsel, always.
Candor
People say things in mediation they would never say on a witness stand. That is not a flaw in the process; it is the whole point.
Respect for What's at Stake
The estate, and the family that has to survive it. The goal is a resolution the parties can live with — and live with each other after. If the day ends without terms, the follow-up continues until it has them or it cannot.
INSIGHTS
From the mediator's desk
ARTICLE
Why I Mediate in Person
In probate, estate, and trust disputes the real conflict is rarely only about money. Why these matters are best resolved face to face — reading what goes unspoken, managing grief and long-held family tension, and giving families a path back from litigation.
James W. Fuhrmeister
READ THE ARTICLE →
ARTICLE
Choosing a Mediator
Hire your neutral the way you would hire trial counsel. The questions worth asking any mediator under consideration for a matter of consequence, this one included, and why a roster answers none of them.
James W. Fuhrmeister
READ THE ARTICLE →
ALL INSIGHTS →
FOR COUNSEL
Weighing mediation for a client's matter?
Send the operative instrument and key documents for a confidential case-fit review. Conflicts checked and dates confirmed within one business day.
BEGIN A CASE-FIT REVIEW →
FROM EITHER SIDE
On the other side of the same matter?
Either side's counsel may propose mediation, in confidence. The firm mediates matters in which all parties are represented by counsel; engagement follows the agreement of all parties.
START A CONFIDENTIAL CONVERSATION →
FOR THE PARTIES
WHAT TO EXPECT IN MEDIATION — ONE-PAGE GUIDE (PDF)
Written for the parties, not their lawyers. Counsel are welcome to share it.
SCHEDULE A CALL
Start a confidential conversation.
A brief introductory call, confidential and without obligation, to weigh whether a matter is a fit and answer counsel's questions.
EASTERN SHORE MEDIATION
P.O. BOX 1473 · FAIRHOPE, ALABAMA 36533 · (205) 531-1116 · JIM@EASTERNSHOREMEDIATION.COM