oHappy New Year! I hope that everyone has remained healthy and safe!!!! As usual, the California Legislature kept busy in 2020 passing many laws although not as many as in past years. It enacted only 372 laws and many of them dealt with various forms of needed relief stemming from [Read More]
The Broadway musical, "Rent" has a song entitled "Seasons of Love" which starts off by asking: Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes. Five hundred twenty five thousand moments so dear. five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes. How do you measure, Measure a year? In daylights? In [Read More]
Recently, I conducted two mediations that revealed the importance of flexibility, creativity and being prepared. The first one was an alleged wrongful termination case in which the employer was disputing that the alleged employee was even terminated. According to the alleged employer, the alleged employee quit while the employee claimed [Read More]
During my first week of class teaching mediation ethics, I usually give a version of the Kilmann Diagnostic Test because I believe that one’s personality type impacts one’s mediating style. Thus, a blog post dated November 12, 2020 on the Harvard Pons website caught my attention. Entitled “How Much Does [Read More]
Recently, a friend of mine challenged me to write a blog about how to survive Thanksgiving dinner considering our recent election. Some will be happy while others will be distraught at the results; yet we will all be sitting around the same table (virtually?) breaking bread together. She then told [Read More]
Well, it happened again; another mediation in which one side was not prepared. And… as you might surmise, the mediation did not last long. (This is a topic I have often addressed in my blogs.) It involved a used automobile. The plaintiff claimed that the used car dealer breached both [Read More]
On days that I had a mediation prior to Covid 19, I would dress the part. I would wear a pantsuit with very comfortable shoes for all the walking that I would end up doing by going back and forth between the different conference rooms. Now, during the pandemic, all [Read More]
It has been said that body language makes up about 55% of our communication while our tone of voice comprises 38% and our actual verbal words comprise 7%. ( The 7% Rule). With everyone using Zoom these days, I would suspect that facial expressions are becoming more and more important. [Read More]
