I opened the Science section of the New York Times last week to find an article about the value of mediation when siblings cannot agree on the next care steps for their elderly parents. Entitled “When Families Fight Over a Relative With Dementia, It’s Time to Call in the Mediator.,” [Read More]
On May 1, 2024, the Senate Judiciary Committee of the California legislature passed a heavily amended Senate Bill 940 aimed at regulating both arbitration and mediation services in California. According to a Los Angeles Daily Journal article published on May 2, 2024 (subscription only), the arbitration provisions may well run [Read More]
I stumbled upon a study entitled “Settlementality” by Jessica Bregant, Jennifer K. Robbennolt & Verity Winship which surveyed over 1,000 U. S. adults on their basic knowledge of settlements and what. If any, role the courts and contract law play in settlement. (Id. at 1.) Although their results were mixed [Read More]
Last weekend, I attended a conference of fellow mediators. One of the points raised was that mediating via Zoom, or any other video-conference platform requires a different skill set and for those new mediators (of less than three years) , it may be the only skill set they know. That [Read More]
This semester I am teaching an online Employment Dispute Mediation course at USC Gould School of Law. Using employment law as the substantive vehicle, I am teaching my students essentially how to be mediators from “soup to nuts.” In teaching them how to mediate, I note to my students repeatedly [Read More]
The other day, I opened one of the French doors in our house to let the dog outside where he proceeded to sun himself. Unbeknownst to me, a hummingbird took the open door as an invitation to come inside. I did not realize it until an hour or so later [Read More]
The Sound of Silence is a song written by and released in 1964 by Simon and Garfunkel. It was used in the movie, The Graduate. Its lyrics include the phrases: “People talking without speaking, People hearing without listening.” It is the last phrase I want to dwell on: People hearing [Read More]
A few weeks ago, I posted a blog on the importance of the words we use during a mediation or any negotiation. For example, rather than using labels “the other side” or “Plaintiff” or “defendant”, we should use the actual names of the people involved. As chance would have it, [Read More]
