Your Early Holiday Stocking Stuffer: The Silver Dollars I Picked Off Your Floor
I want to offer you a valuable stocking stuffer for next year. For most lawyers billing hourly, the smallest profit generator is the billable unit recorded as one-tenth of an hour – the “point-one.” When you engage in any large task, there is a small amount of lead-up...
Negotiating in the Crosswind of Settlement Desire
The desire to settle during mediation can be mutual, essentially balanced and shared, or highly unbalanced or asymmetric. As a mediator, I want to find out which side more strongly feels the need to settle. I seek to press upon the side least desirous of settling. I...
Best Practices for Mediating Catastrophic Injury and Large Losses in Transportation-Related Claims
Transportation claims suffer from frequency and severity. It stands to reason we should become more expert at resolving these cases short of trial. Catastrophic injury and large loss claims require a level of concerted activity prior to mediation that is sometimes...
You Can’t Make Handprints When the Concrete is Set: The Vital Need for Exchange of Premediation Submittals
There are no timetables, deadlines or rules governing the conduct of the parties leading up to mediation. The parties prepare independently of each other. Many times, there is little or no “premediation” discussion about settlement except, perhaps, some throw-away...
If You Read Only One Thing About Mediation, Read This: The Critical Role of the ‘Henry Term Sheet Rule’ in Mediation
Some may have experienced what I call the “Friday afternoon problem” in mediation. After a long day, you have hammered out the four corners of a deal. Everyone can summarize the deal on a couple of pages, but the final settlement document will require additional...
Mediation is the Food Truck of Dispute Resolution
Research in a variety of jurisdictions reveals that approximately one percent of filed civil cases reach trial, maybe less in some states.[1] Commentators note several likely causes: Loose discovery rules, stricter pleading, heightened summary judgment standards, and...
The 30/30 Piece on Mediation Advocacy
When I was a young associate and handling mediations on my own, I really didn’t get it. I mediated too late in the life of the case. I had no relationship with opposing counsel. Mediation advocacy is a lot like sex – for most people you sort of figure it out as you go...
The Road to Uncovering the Hidden Truth in Mediation
If I have reasonably competent lawyers with equally motivated clients with access to the same information (and those are not trivial caveats), isn’t it fair to believe they will be looking at the same playing field albeit from different sides? Isn’t it reasonable to...
Attendance Rules at Mediation and Other Oddities
Few topics engender debate more than the issue of proper attendance at mediation. Even mediators do not agree on the rules and willingly tolerate a breach or some bad practice. There is a fair amount of problematic behavior largely arising from good intentions but...
An Open Letter to Judges in Florida: Why Non-Binding Arbitration Stinks and the Role of Early Mediation in Dispute Resolution
The passage of the Florida Mediation Confidentiality and Privilege Act in 1985 (§44.401 et. seq.) and the adoption of new rules of civil procedure in 1987 governing mediation changed the landscape of dispute resolution in Florida. Mediation became a fixture in the...
The Mediator’s Wish List
Now that the holiday season is in full swing, you are probably seeking holiday gift-giving lists. Most mediators want the same thing. Here is a list of things most mediators would like to receive in case you are still shopping for the holidays. Mediators would like...
Happy Thanksgiving: A Message to Lawyers Young and Not So Young
Recently I spoke to the Young Lawyers Section of the Florida Bar and the presentation was "Ten Things I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me 30 Years Ago." This article flows from that presentation. Balancing work, family, personal interests, fitness, and other...
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