An article last month in the New York Times got me thinking that perhaps in my mediations, I should warn people that their memories and perceptions may be unreliable, especially where the situation involves parties of different ethnicities. In To Curb Bad Verdicts, Court Adds Lesson on Racial Bias for [Read More]
On January 5, 2018, The California Law Revision Commission (CLRC) published it Pre-Print Recommendation on its Study K-402- Relationship Between Mediation Confidentiality and Attorney Malpractice and Other Misconduct. The Note at the bottom of the page cautions that that the CLRC has approved the substance of the report; minor editorial [Read More]
As I have mentioned quite a few times in my blogs, I mediate a lot of lemon law cases or cases filed under California’s Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act (Civ. Code section 1790 et seq. (“Act”). In many of my mediations, once the defendant vehicle manufacturer agrees to repurchase the vehicle, [Read More]
Time tends to pass, and we do not even realize it. In October, I received an invitation to attend my 40th law school reunion and did a double take; had it been THAT long? WOW! I decided to attend. During the weekend of festivities, Tulane put on two continuing legal [Read More]
Many mediations end in settlement at which point the parties draft a settlement agreement. California law provides a summary procedure by which the parties can enforce the settlement agreement if the spirit of compromise does not continue after the mediation. Code of Civil Procedure Section 664.6 provides: 664.6. If parties [Read More]
In a hearing on December 1, 2017 lasting one hour beyond the scheduled end time, the California Law Revision Commission (“CLRC”) gave its final approval to the Tentative Recommendation issued in June 2017 to create certain exceptions to mediation confidentiality. Its final approval is subject to the chair and /or [Read More]
In October 2015, I posted a blog about a then recent New York Times article on the benefits of anger in negotiations. In “The Rationality of Rage”, Matthew Hudson reviewed then recent studies indicating that in a balanced negotiation, anger tends to provide some leverage; it helped the angry negotiator [Read More]
Mediations and their participants never cease to amaze me. Recently, I mediated a personal injury lawsuit. It should have settled as liability was not an issue. Defendant was not contesting her fault for making a left turn immediately in front of Plaintiff’s vehicle that was proceeding straight. Rather, the issue [Read More]
