Mediation Blog
The Bias in the flip of a coin!
The Judicial Council of California Civil Jury Instructions- Instruction 5009 on Pre-deliberations- admonishes jurors who are about to retire to decide the verdict that while the judge knows that the jurors will not do so, [Read More]
A Mediation Scam!
Typically, I post blogs about a recent mediation or about mediation theory or practice. But today I am posting about a scam. We have all heard about various scams in which the scoundrels attempt to [Read More]
Why Do People Lie During Negotiations?
The other night in mediation ethics class, we discussed using deception in negotiation and more specifically why certain folks will outright misrepresent an important fact as opposed to merely puffing or embellishing a little bit. [Read More]
Shoudl Mediators Be Drafting Settlement Agreements?
Recently, the topic of whether mediators should draft settlement agreements arose in my mediation ethics class. I suggested that if the parties have attorneys, the mediator should encourage the attorneys to draft the agreement. A [Read More]
Never Mediate During a Heat Wave!
Every day we read and/or see news of how climate change has affected or is impacting our daily lives. Well- an article in Live Science suggests that heat may cause us to be more aggressive [Read More]
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.” [Read More]
