The art of negotiation seems to be very much in the news today, with issues involving trade, tariffs, immigration, arms sales, nuclear arms, et cetera. In preparing to teach a class on negotiation ethics as part of my Mediation Ethics course at USC Gould School of Law, it dawned on [Read More]
Informed Consent in Mediations Taking Place in California Originally published in the Daily Journal, September 28, 2018. Download the PDF Version of the Article Here Sometimes parties attend mediation without the proper preparation. If the matter is in litigation, their attorney may not have met with them beforehand to [Read More]
One well known mantra of mediators is that it is always better to mediate prior to filing a lawsuit than to incur the time and expense lawsuits entail. Most lawyers will tell you that litigation is the most expensive and least efficient way of resolving a matter; yet, they will [Read More]
I came across an article on negotiation ethics that intrigued me because I am co-teaching ADR Ethics at USC Gould School of Law this semester.  Typically, before I discuss the topic of mediation ethics with my students, I delve into the topic of “negotiation ethics” in general. The article, entitled [Read More]
Several weeks ago, I posted a blog about the enactment of Senate Bill 954 as Evidence Code section 1129. This new law effective January 1, 2019 requires counsel to obtain a written acknowledgement from their clients as soon as is reasonably possible after agreeing to mediation or to a mediation [Read More]
I just finished conducting a mediation (lemon law) which did not settle. And I think the prime reason was that there were too many different attorneys handling the matter. Although in the same firm, they apparently were not communicating with each other or the representative of the client handling the [Read More]
I stumbled upon an article in mediate.com discussing an empirical study conducted in the Singapore Courts about their use of mediation. The actual article, (How Should the Courts Know Whether a Dispute is Ready and Suitable for Mediation? An Empirical Analysis of the Singapore Courts’ Referral of Civil Disputes to [Read More]
Attending a mediation requires making difficult decisions. It also requires weighing options. Do we settle? Not settle? Under what conditions? Should we hold out for more favorable terms? Or settle now? And so on. Well… The New York Times published an article in its Sunday Review Section on September 1, [Read More]
