Every once in a while, I read about a case that has nothing to do with mediation other than creativity and feel compelled to write about it. As I have noted previously, there is one thing about lawyers and/or their clients: they can be very creative. The Ninth Circuit Court [Read More]
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]
A Dollar for Chalking! In May 2019, I posted a blog about a plaintiff who challenged a parking ticket on the grounds that chalking her tires by the parking police in the City of Saginaw, Michigan (“City”) violated her Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches as the City neither had [Read More]
Many years ago, Albert Mehrabian, now a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) determined that approximately 55% of our communication is non-verbal; 38% of it is vocal (tone) and 7% is words only, meaning body language can be very revealing. This simple fact played itself out [Read More]
The ABA published another interesting article discussing the dismissal of a third-party complaint because the parties failed to mediate as required by their contract. Entitled “Failure to Mediate Causes Dismisses of Case” by Michael Stefanilo, Jr, the article (dated March 23,2022) highlights Rivas v CBK Lodge General Partner, LLC, U.S. [Read More]
The American Bar Association published a story warning us all to be careful about settling by email. It recited the case of Philadelphia Ins. Indemnity Co. v Kendall decided by the Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, Case No. 2020-02752, Appeal No. 13756 [Read More]
No doubt, many of us have encountered the aggressive negotiator who in a distributive bargaining zero-sum situation makes an “outrageous” settlement demand in the hopes of acquiring as much of the pie as possible. Our response is typically to be angry and to rail against both the demand and the [Read More]
In May 2019, I posted a blog discussing the creativity of lawyers and "out of the box" thinking. On behalf of their client Alison Patricia Taylor, the lawyers sued the City of Saginaw, Michigan under 42 USC § 1983 (violation of civil rights) by chalking her tires in violation of [Read More]
