In California, the State Legislature and the Supreme Court take the notion of Mediation Confidentiality quite literally. Rojas v. Superior Court (Coffin) (2004) XX Cal. 4th XX.
Unfortunately, shrewd legal counsel may turn the “public policy” goal of that confidentiality shield on its head. Their technique: prepare accurate evidence which is adverse to their client’s position and introduce it as a document at Mediation, with the assurance that this “truthful writing” will be cloaked in the Invisibility Shield of Mediation Confidentiality! The truth seeking which is supposed to be an integral part of the adversary process instead morphs into a tool for hiding the truth.
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