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|

Informed Consent

Once again, I am teaching mediation ethics to graduate students at the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California. Over the last couple of weeks, we have been focusing on “informed consent.”  Standard I  of the Model Standards of Conduct for Mediators  covers self-determination and mandates that [Read More]

By |September 22nd, 2023|Actual Mediations|

Happiness and Self-Determination

This past Monday--March 20- marked the ten-year anniversary of the International Day of Happiness. Evidently, it was created by a  United Nations Resolution  passed at its 118th plenary meeting on June 28, 2012, declaring March 20th of each year to be the holiday. As one might guess, the resolution was [Read More]

By |March 24th, 2023|News articles|

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|

Overriding Self-determination

I will never understand why people go to mediation (and pay lots of money to a mediator) when they are not  prepared to settle. I had another one of those mediations recently that went nowhere even before it started. I knew something was amiss when I did not receive any [Read More]

By |October 29th, 2021|Actual Mediations|

The Mediator as a Choice Architect.

One of the most important aspects of mediation is self-determination. Standard 1 of the Model Standards of Conduct for Mediation is entitled "Self-Determination." It provides that a mediator shall conduct a mediation based on self-determination which it defines as the "act of coming to a voluntary uncoerced decision in which [Read More]

By |September 24th, 2021|Research|
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