Intake language

[manonthemat]

Multi-lingual parties may opt to write their case from their perspective in any of their languages.
In the current system, the case may be given to a mediator that speaks the parties' other language(s), but not the one that matches the language of the case description for one or both parties.
This adds friction as the mediator may be inclined to decline the case based on the lack of understanding of the case - probably a good choice.

Example:
Parties A and B speak English and Spanish fluently. Party A fills the intake form out in English, Party B fills it out in Spanish.
The case gets assigned to a mediator who only speaks English.
The mediator does not understand the case and thus declines it.

The issue here is that both parties could have also written their intake form in perfect English as well. In that case, the mediator would have probably accepted the case.

How should we deal with this?

[dsleylian]

Interesting point.
What would you think about adding a drop down menu for desired language on the New Mediation page? So that before creating a case and choosing a mediator, there is a filtering down to one desired language?
Would this filtration take place before the selection of the specialty or after?
The current check (to see if the mediators and party have language in common) happen before specialty, so maybe narrowing down to one language should happen first as well.

I think that Party B would also need to have a detail such as "Party A has chosen an English speaking mediator for your mediation, please fill out all form in English" or a similar message on the Join Mediation page.

Do we also want to provide party B with the option to say "This language doesn't work for me" and the option to restart a case and choose a different language, similar to the "none of these time work for me" option?