To learn about one couple who did not mediate, and thus are in the public spotlight, read: Wrapped in Marriage’s End, the Fate of a Team, by JENNIFER STEINHAUER, published in The New York Times.

For more information, read about Our Divorce Mediation Services.

NOTE: This Blog/Blawg, NJ Family Issues, is managed by Paul G. Kostro, Esq., an attorney/lawyer/mediator in Linden, Union County, New Jersey.

Source: Negotiating With The Wolf, by F. Peter Phillips, Esq.

NOTE: My Law Office is located at 726 West Saint Georges [W. St. Georges] Avenue (Route 27), Linden, Union County, NJ. Telephone: 908-486-2200; EM@IL

YOU have choices; to help YOU decide on what is best for YOU, read: Collaborative law aims for a kinder divorce; how’s that working out?, by Shia Kapos, published in Crain’s Chicago Business.

However you decide to proceed, please call me to schedule an appointment to discuss your decision.

NOTE: My Law Office is located at 726 West Saint Georges [W. St. Georges] Avenue (Route 27), Linden, Union County, NJ. Telephone: 908-486-2200; EM@IL

Whether characterized as an arbitration, a mediation, or as some other form of alternative dispute resolution, if the undisputed facts demonstrate that an ADR Professional recused himself or withdrew from providing a binding resolution based on a doubt whether he or she could be fair and impartial, that act would be integral to the ADR Professional’s quasi-judicial function and would therefore be covered by arbitral or quasi-judicial immunity.

As F. Peter Phillips, Esq. commented in his Business Conflict Blog: “[T]he end result seems to be that you can sue a car manufacturer who takes your money and the car won’t work, and you can sue a broker who takes your money and doesn’t make the trade, but you can’t sue an arbitrator who takes your money and then won’t arbitrate.”

See related Discussion from the ADR, Conflict Resolution and Mediation Exchange LinkedIn Group.

NOTE: This Blog/Blawg, NJ Family Issues, is managed by Paul G. Kostro, Esq., an attorney/lawyer/mediator in Linden, Union County, New Jersey.

NOTE: This Blog/Blawg, NJ Family Issues, is managed by Paul G. Kostro, Esq., an attorney/lawyer/mediator in Linden, Union County, New Jersey.

For years, divorcing couples have hired mediators to avoid court battles. Now, some mediators are starting to specialize in resolving disputes that relate to older adults, such as those over inheritances and caregiving.
[SOURCE: Mediators Focus on Elder Issues, by ANNE TERGESEN, published in The Wall Street Journal Digital Network.]

For more information abut my Confidential Mediation Services, go HERE.

NOTE: My Law Office is located at 726 West Saint Georges [W. St. Georges] Avenue (Route 27), Linden, Union County, NJ. Telephone: 908-486-2200

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“Kate” centers on Kate Reed (Sarah Shahi), a top litigator who, frustrated with the bureaucracy and injustice she witnesses in legal system, decides to become the ultimate anti-lawyer: a mediator.

Read more about it: USA gives series order to ‘Facing Kate’, by Nellie Andreeva, published in The Hollywood Reporter.

To read about my Confidential Mediation Services, go HERE.

NOTE: This Blog/Blawg, NJ Family Issues, is managed by Paul G. Kostro, Esq., an attorney/lawyer/mediator in Linden, Union County, New Jersey.

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Under the applicable law in this case (Ohio), mediation communications are privileged against disclosure. Moreover, a “mediation party may refuse to disclose, and may prevent any other person from disclosing, a mediation communication.”

In Ohio, a “mediation communication” is defined as “a statement, whether oral, in a record, verbal or nonverbal, that occurs during a mediation or is made for purposes of considering, conducting, participating in, initiating, continuing, or reconvening a mediation or retaining a mediator.”

In the instant case, a party was sanctioned for failure to proceed in good faith to reach a compromise agreement. In reaching its decision, the trial court reasoned that approximately 90 minutes after the session began, the party’s counsel informed the Mediator that his client would not give her consent to settle the instant matter nor had she ever given consent to do so.”

The appellate court determined that the privileged mediation communication that the client would not give her consent to settle was not permitted to be disclosed in the mediator’s report. The mediator was only allowed to disclose whether the mediation had occurred or terminated, the statute does not permit for the reasoning to be disclosed. The statute also expressly provides a privileged communication disclosed by a mediator “shall not be considered by a court, administrative agency, or arbitrator.” The issuance of sanctions based on privileged mediation communication was an abuse of discretion.

[In contrast, see: In re A.T. Reynolds & Sons, Inc., UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, POUGHKEEPSIE DIVISION, Case No. 08-37739, .Chapter 11]

See related Blog Post, published in the Adjunct Law Prof Blog.

See also related Blog Post, published in Disputing, Conversations about Dispute Resolution.

See my related Blog Posts:

• Are mediation confidentiality statutes also attorney immunity statutes?; and
• Despite all efforts to the contrary, the process of mediation may turn out NOT to be confidential; and
• Failure to obey an Order of Referral to Mediation (including the failure to make timely payment to the mediator) may result in the imposition of costs or fees on the defaulting party; and
• ADDESA: A property settlement agreement resulting from a voluntary mediation, like any privately negotiated PSA, may be reformed where there is unconscionability, fraud, or mistake and concealment

In N.J., mediation is governed by The Uniform Mediation Act (”UMA”), N.J.S.A. 2A:23C-1 to -13.

See related Blog Post: What Does A Court Mean When Litigants Are Ordered To “Mediate In Good Faith?”, published in the Law Office of Donald D. Vanarelli Blog.

NOTE: This Blog/Blawg, NJ Family Issues, is managed by Paul G. Kostro, Esq., an attorney/lawyer/mediator in Linden, Union County, New Jersey.

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Read: Can You Recognize When You’re Being “Reality Tested”?, posted in the Business Conflict Blog by F. Peter Phillips, Esq.

NOTE: This Blog/Blawg, NJ Family Issues, is managed by Paul G. Kostro, Esq., an attorney/lawyer/mediator in Linden, Union County, New Jersey.

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That is what happened in West Virginia, where a dispute was settled with a slap. (Read: Legal Ethics — Prosecutor Suspended Over Plea Deal Allowing Victim to Slap Defendant, By Martha Neil, published in the ABA Journal Law News Now. [This incident is discussed briefly by Marvin Schuldiner in his Sanns Mediation World of ADR blog: An Apology or Slap in the Face?])

However, the West Virginia case was a criminal matter being prosecuted by the State — are the rules different in private disputes? Can a slap set things right? How about an eye for an eye?

To learn more about my mediation services, see: Confidential Mediation.

If you are interested, you can follow the related discussion on LinkedIn.

NOTE: This Blog/Blawg, NJ Family Issues, is managed by Paul G. Kostro, Esq., an attorney/lawyer/mediator in Linden, Union County, New Jersey.

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