Consistency

In his book, Influence- Science and Practice, Robert B. Cialdini (4th ed. Allyn and Bacon, Boston 2001) discusses six psychological  principles that impact  us every day. One of them is  Commitment and Consistency:   “ It is, quite, simply our desire to be and to appear consistent with what we [Read More]

By |February 2nd, 2024|Mediation|

Substantive Fairness

Suppose you are mediating a divorce in which the wife agrees to accept 25% of the community assets in settlement even though a court would award her 50%. She wants the matter concluded as quickly as possible in the worst way and so will accept anything to be done with [Read More]

By |January 26th, 2024|Mediation|

Which Standard is Most Important?

Last semester, one of my students took the wrong take home exam. So, I prepared a special make up exam which was simple yet required a lot of thought: Rank in terms of importance five of the nine model standards in the Model Standards of Conduct for Mediators and explain [Read More]

By |January 12th, 2024|Mediation|

Don’t Forget About the Anxiety!

Having mediated several thousand disputes over close to 20 years, I sometimes forget that for one or more of the parties appearing at mediation, he/she has never been in a mediation (It is quite new and foreign to him/her.) and so may be quite anxious about it all. Thus, my [Read More]

By |March 3rd, 2023|Mediation|

Back To Basics: Why Mediate?

As part of my preparation to teach a class on mediation confidentiality, I reviewed the Uniform Mediation Act with all of its comments (UMA). In doing so, it struck me that although mediation is extremely popular and common place, it would be good to remind ourselves why we should mediate [Read More]

By |October 14th, 2022|Mediation|

Mediation: Meeting in the Middle!

The Southern California Mediation Association (SCMA) recently held its annual conference (virtually). The closing plenary remarks were delivered by Randy Lowry- the first president and a founding member of SCMA. The theme of the conference was ‘the magic of mediation” or how a few hours of mediation can work magic [Read More]

By |December 3rd, 2021|Mediation|
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