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]
Recently, I had a sexual harassment employment mediation. Prior to the mediation and based on the briefs, I figured it was going to be either a very short mediation (i.e., the case would not settle) or a very long one (i.e. the case would either settle or almost settle). The [Read More]
Every once in awhile, I blog about how important it is to prepare for mediation and how parties and/or counsel cannot come to mediation expecting simply to "wing it" and succeed. It will not work! A recent mediation is a case in point. It was a straightforward collection case. Plaintiff [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]
In my years as a mediator, it has struck me that the smaller the dispute, the harder it is to settle. And, I have always wondered why. Well, my friend and colleague, Maria Simpson, Ph.D., in her most recent Two Minute Training, explained the "why" quite succinctly: it is all [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]
On February 23, 2012, Assembly Bill 2025 (ab_2025_bill_20120223_introduced) was introduced in the California legislature. The intent of the bill was to abolish mediation confidentiality with respect to "... communications between a client and his or her attorney during mediation, in an action for legal malpractice or breach of fiduciary duty [Read More]
Science never ceases to amaze me. Now there is a study that finds that being too happy is not a good thing. According to an article in the April 2, 2012 edition of The Washington Post entitled "Too much happiness can make you unhappy, studies show", one can be less [Read More]
