On three occasions in the past, I have written about a case in Saginaw, Michigan in which the issue was whether chalking tires on parked vehicles violated the Fourth Amendment’s unreasonable search provision. (See, May 10, 2019; September 10, 2021 and August 19, 2022.) In that case, Taylor vs City [Read More]
It seems that everywhere one looks, there is an implicit bias lurking behind the scenes. While recently, it was the birthday paradox, this week it is the implicit bias we have regarding status. In an article in the Science and Technology section of The Economist (September 14, 2022) entitled, An [Read More]
Recently, I received an email from Darren Lee, Executive Director of The National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals (NADN) with the results of a survey (NADN-2022-SurveyOfLitigators-ViewsOnODR[64656] ) of litigators on virtual mediation. The survey compared responses received in September 2020 with those received in September 2022. Both surveys were sent to [Read More]
Many of my blogs have focused on cognitive biases or systematic errors of judgment. In perusing the internet, I found another interesting example of why we should not trust our intuition. A LiveScience article (“What is the birthday paradox?”) posted on July 30, 2022, authored by Charles Q. Choi asks, [Read More]
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]
Whenever I see an article on implicit bias, I must read and write about it. This time, the article is entitled, “Embedded bias: How medical records sow discrimination” by Darius Tahir of Kaiser Health News. The theme of the article is that doctors unconsciously (or perhaps even consciously) write notes [Read More]
Last week, I posted a blog about the shortness of our working life and whether we really want to spend it embroiled in litigation. That post reminded me of a much earlier post (dated October 1, 2007) in which I looked at time in terms of seconds in a day [Read More]
The other day I conducted a mediation between a non-English speaking plaintiff and a used car dealer. The issue was whether the dealer had misrepresented certain aspects of the sale to the plaintiff. We were well on the way to settling the matter when the issue of attorneys’ fees came [Read More]
