Courts|Mediation

No Writing, No Settlement

Courts|Mediation

No Writing, No Settlement

Recently this blog featured a post about a mediated settlement agreement that was enforced because it was memorialized in a written document containing the agreement's essential terms.  Here we have the obverse:  A case that was decided in the same month -- July 2010 -- in which a mediated settlement agreement was held unenforceable...

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Courts

Settlement Agreement Enforceable Through Classic Contract Analysis

Courts

Settlement Agreement Enforceable Through Classic Contract Analysis

In July 2010, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida accepted the Report and Recommendation of Magistrate Judge John J. O'Sullivan that a mediation settlement agreement be enforced over the objections of the defendant.  In so doing, the court engaged in an analysis that would be...

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Conflict Resolution|International|systems design

ADR As Management Tool: Elite Organizations Hold Joint Conference

Conflict Resolution|International|systems design

ADR As Management Tool: Elite Organizations Hold Joint Conference

Collaboration -- a practice so often touted by the world's leading ADR organizations -- is too seldom practiced by those organizations themselves.  Therefore it is with great pleasure that I note a conference in February being jointly conducted by the ICC and the CPR Institute....

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Conflict Resolution

A Judge Who Knows How To Do Business

Conflict Resolution

A Judge Who Knows How To Do Business

Ben Tennille is Chief Judge of the North Carolina Business Court, and spoke last week to the American College of Business Court Judges on how he runs Case Management Conferences in order to encourage clients to focus on settlement of cases at an early stage.  It was an instructive insight into...

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Mediation

Texas Court Closes the Back Door to Mediation Testimony

Mediation

Texas Court Closes the Back Door to Mediation Testimony

We are all too familiar with settling parties who seek to relieve themselves of their settlement agreements.  The Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas recently reversed a trial court that had permitted such a party to obtain testimony of opposing counsel's communications during the mediation that led to the...

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Conflict Resolution

Exception Found for Mediation Confidentiality

Conflict Resolution

Exception Found for Mediation Confidentiality

It is hard (we hope) to find exceptions to the general rule that statements made in mediation are inadmissible.  However, Judge J. William Ditter of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has held that some party statements can be admissible -- such as statements to the effect...

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