People come to mediation to settle their disputes. Or, so they claim! But, do they really want to settle? In her monthly column, One Minute Negotiation Tips, published by the Los Angeles County Bar Association (Vol. IV, No. 9, October 2011), Ms. Linda Bulmash asks this fundamental question: Is Your [Read More]
In its latest Technology Quarterly section, The Economist published an article entitled "Game Theory In Practice" (September 3, 2011) in which it explores using "game theory" to forecast political and economic events and to resolve disputes. It seems that Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, an academic at New York University, has [Read More]
Time sure does fly! It is that time of year again, and I can't believe that it has already been a year since I was President of SCMA. The Southern California Mediation Association ("SCMA") is holding its 23rd Annual Conference on November 4-5, 2011 in Los Angeles, CA. Entitled "Putting [Read More]
In June 2011, I wrote a blog entitled The "Right" Brain discussing how to mediate disputes with high conflict people aka "difficult" people. The other weekend, I attended the California State Bar Convention. There, my colleague Steve G. Mehta Esq. presented a seminar entitled "Dealing with Difficult Clients and Opposing [Read More]
Once again, my colleague Linda Bulmash has written a concise article on negotiation. In her September 2011 article entitled "12 Steps for Effective Negotiation" published by the Los Angeles County Bar Association (Vol. IV, No. 8), Ms. Bulmash summarizes a "practical and pragmatic negotiation strategy" put forth by Dennis Ross [Read More]
The other week I attended the California State Bar Conference. In an early Sunday morning session, I had the privilege of listening to Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine, School of Law and nationally acclaimed expert on constitutional law, discuss recent developments in constitutional [Read More]
Predictably, my blog draws on my experience as a mediator. Once again, over the last few weeks, I have conducted more than one mediation where time was not taken prior to the mediation to explain to a party what mediation is all about: its process and what to expect. I [Read More]
Often, in a mediation, one and/or both parties tell me that they would rather go to trial than accept or pay the sum of money (or other item) being discussed as a compromise of the matter. At this point, I discuss the risks of going to trial. Sometimes I am [Read More]
