Business executives are supposed to be creatures of logic, carefully weighing costs and benefits. Yet some mediations fail even when there are several sensible alternatives, any of which would offer the disputants as good or a better a result than each of them would expect from other likely outcomes of the dispute.
Read more »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.
Read more »One in a series of articles exploring the ethical dilemmas of mediation participants.
Supreme Court Justice Scalia has been requested by the Sierra Club, a litigant with an appeal pending involving Vice President Cheney and the White House task force he headed to develop the Bush Administration’s national energy policy, to step down from consideration of this case.
Read more »Going to see Michael Moore's controversial documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" won't earn you continuing education credits, but there's plenty that a litigator can learn from watching the movie.
There are two very different techniques Moore uses repeatedly. One is effective persuasion, clearly intended to persuade the uncommitted. Moore also uses shock, satire and derision to drive his points home - at the risk of alienating anyone who does not share his beliefs.
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