For the past ten years (and counting), Dr. Ivan Sutter and Oxford Health Plans have been engaged in a dispute arising from a 1998 agreement pursuant to which Dr. Sutter would provide health services to Oxford's members and Oxford would compensate the doctor at a predetermined rate. Seeking quick, efficient resolution of...
J. Michael Hand didn't like the Walnut Valley Sailing Club's storage shed. A member of the club, though not disabled himself, Mr. Hand thought the structure didn't comply with the accessibility requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. So he sued. The Walnut Valley Sailing Club didn't like being sued, and...
I remember attending the first meeting of the Dispute Resolution Section of the American Bar Association, in Boston, in 1999. I was on a panel discussing Y2K, and absolutely everybody I had ever met in ADR was in attendance. Y2K has since moved on, but the ABA Dispute Resolution Section...
An attorney keeps her client files on the hard drive of her laptop. These files include confidential and sensitive client information, and attorney-client communications. Leaving a dentist appointment, she discovers that her car's windows have been smashed and that the property inside the car -- including her GPS and her laptop -- have been...
This post continues a discussion of some recent court opinions concerning the enforceability of settlement agreements reached during mediation, but subsequently disowned by one of the parties. In Williamson v. Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals (N.J. App. Div. A-6291-10T1, March 12, 2012), plaintiff sought damages from her employer for alleged violations of the New...
It is uncomfortable for all concerned when a party to a mediation disowns the "settlement" purported to have been reached and challenges the enforceability of the writing made at the mediation session. A previous post discussed a New Jersey case in which the mediator offered testimony as to whether there...
Med-Arb and other hybrid processes have been received with reluctance in the United States and UK, mainly because of ethical concerns of the arbitrator. Outside of common law countries, however, the legal culture has been more welcoming to the involvement of an adjudicator -- whether a judge or an arbitrator -- in...