Given the pervasive use of e mail in business and in our lives in general, it is not surprising that a lot of disputes get settled via e mail. Indeed, there is a whole cottage industry including several web sites devoted to on-line dispute resolution.Consequently, a recent federal district court [Read More]
On Sunday, October 13, 2013, I will be participating in a panel presentation entitled, "Ethical Duties of Eliminating Bias in the Legal Profession" as part of the California State Bar's Eighty Sixth Annual Meeting in San Jose, California. The focus of our discussion will be hidden/implicit biases- those biases that [Read More]
In previous blogs, I have discussed the hullaballoo surrounding the introduction of AB 2025 into the California Legislature. As originally drafted and introduced into the California State Assembly, it provided that mediation confidentiality would not preclude the introduction of "... communications between a client and his or her attorney during [Read More]
One of the cardinal rules of mediation is that the person with settlement authority attends the mediation. If not explicitly stated in most state and federal court rules, it is implicit. The reason is obvious: it is difficult to settle when the person with the authority to do so, is [Read More]
On June 7, 2012, the Third Appellate District Court in California, once again, reaffirmed the notion that where a contract requires pre-litigation mediation as a condition to recouping attorneys' fees in subsequent litigation, it means what it says. In Cullen v. Corwin, (Case No. C067861) ( Cullen v Corwin) Plaintiffs [Read More]
Late last month, the Court of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District in California took up the issue of "binding mediation." Unlike an earlier case on the same topic that it took up in 2006 (Lindsay v. Lewandowski (2006) 43 Cal. Rptr. 3d. 846, 139 Cal. App. 4th 1618), this [Read More]
Readers of not only my blog but those of other California neutrals are no doubt familiar with all of the hullaballoo raised over AB 2025- the California Legislature's attempt to exclude actions for legal malpractice and disciplinary actions from the cloak of mediation confidentiality. At present, that assembly bill has [Read More]
As a mediator who handles a lot of "lemon" law matters, I have mediated many cases in which an alleged violation of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is one of the claims. Last fall, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion involving this Act. Recently, it withdrew its opinion [Read More]
