I just finished reading a book by J. Anderson Little, Making Money Talk (How to Mediate Insured Claims and Other Monetary Disputes) (ABA Publishing 2007). The book has a lot of practical advice both for mediators and for disputing parties. In simple terms, Mr. Little explains that most disputes which [Read More]
I conducted a mediation recently that had all of the ingredients for failure (as discussed in last week's blog) from the very start. It was a wage and hour case in which the plaintiff claimed, among other things, that she worked long hours for which she was not adequately paid, [Read More]
Most folks think that the purpose of mediation is to settle cases. However, in the last few weeks, I have conducted some actual mediations that were "successful" yet did not settle. Although the parties came to mediation with the goal of settling, they walked out accomplishing other purposes.There are many [Read More]
I came across a 2009 blog the other day written by Anthony K. Tjan for the Harvard Business Review. It contains 4 simple rules for effective negotiations; reading through them- I found them to be old friends; rules that I have discussed before in my blogs: 1. Be prepared. Mr. [Read More]
A friend of mine is in a business partnership. I will call her "Jane". Over the past few months, Jane has continuously expressed to me her frustration and dissatisfaction with her partners, as it seems that they do not care much for the business aspect of running a partnership. They [Read More]
Suppose you have a jar of coins and ask several friends to bid on the jar. The highest bid will be deemed the winner. According to Richard H. Thaler ( "Anomalies: The Winner's Curse published inThe Journal of Economic Perspectives ( Volume 2, Issue 1)(Winter 1988) at pp. 191-202), (Thaler [Read More]
My mother passed away on February 24, 2013. It was expected yet unexpected; sudden yet not so sudden. She was 97 and å_ years old. A week before, she was thriving and everything was fine with her; but then, starting a few days before a scheduled assessment conference with the [Read More]
Recently, I wrote about a new study on fairness in monkeys. (another-study-on-fairness ) "Fairness" seems to be a popular topic as my colleague Linda Bulmash in her One Minute Negotiation Tipspublished by the Los Angeles County Bar, (Volume VI, Number 2, February 2013) (Busmash) takes up the topic of "Defining [Read More]
