Arbitration & Mediation

California Courts May Not Require Parties to "Negotiate in Good Faith"

Posted on April 13, 2009
Although a California Court may properly sanction a non-party insurance carrier who possesses the authority to settle litigation for its failure to participate in a mandatory settlement conference, there is no statutory (nor inherent) authority given the Court to sanction the carrier or a party for its purported failure to negotiate in "good faith...

Negotiating Women on New Day Talk Radio Easter Sunday Noon

Posted on April 11, 2009
(and, yes, I am not only old enough to remember the "Second Wave" Women's Movement, I took a quite serious role in it, first as an unpaid volunteer and later through the federal government's "Program for Local Service" at the Center for Women's Studies and Services in San Diego) If you're celebrating Easter tomorrow and bored with the relatives, tune into New Day Talk Radio for a live call-in program on negotiation for women...

An Infinite Regression of Insurance Coverage

Posted on April 10, 2009
This just in from the Insurance Journal -- an infinite regression of insurance coverage.  You can now purchase insurance to cover your insurance company's refusal to provide you with insurance coverage.  And if NAS refuses to provide coverage for your coverage dispute with your insurance carrier?  Don't hold your breath; we've already entered the house of mirrors...

You Must Create Disputes to Resolve Conflicts: Contingent Business Interruption Coverage

Posted on April 09, 2009
Conflict exists. It is a neutral state in which one person believes that his needs or desires cannot be satisfied at the same time as his fellows.  This belief system -- that, for instance, there's not enough food in the world to feed everyone -- is not reality...

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Negotiating World Peace with Mediators Beyond Borders

Posted on April 08, 2009
Please join the Los Angeles Chapter of Mediators Beyond Borders on May 30, 2009 (.pdf) at the home of Ken Cloke and Joan Goldsmith in Santa Monica for conversation on global conflicts.  Contribute your  ideas, expertise, donations and support, in building conflict resolution capacity around the world...

The American Institute of Mediation Opens its Doors

Posted on April 08, 2009
In anticipation of working out Affiliated Organization agreements with SCMA and CDRC, current members of those two organizations (and others in the very near future) will receive special Enrollment Discounts as a benefit of your membership in either of those groups...

Settle It Now in Avvo Top 50 Legal Blogs

Posted on April 08, 2009
Lawyers are shrewd keepers of the score.  They're in the AmLaw100 or 200, serve Fortune 50 or 500 clients and attended a top 10 Tier 1 law school as reported yearly by the U.S. World and News Report.  Every year the ABA announces the Top 100 Law Blogs, the local legal rag - the Los Angeles Daily Journal - lists the top 100 lawyers, top 40 neutrals and 75 top women litigators...

Settling Lawsuits: Money is the Instrument but Justice is the Issue

Posted on April 07, 2009
As every lawyer knows and most students of high school geometry must learn in mastering "proofs," the answer often comes first, the rationale later.  I used to say, "I'm a litigator, I can rationalize anything."  As a mediator, my rationalizations have turned from the way in which facts can be shoe-horned into causes of action or affirmative defenses to the way in which harm arising from a dispute (including, most assuredly, the moral harm of injustice) can be monetized...

Negotiating Practice Development in Hard Times

Posted on April 06, 2009
This month, ADR Services, Inc. will host my presentation to the Southern California Mediation Association's Professional Development Committee meeting on social networking to build your mediation practice.   On Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 7 p.m. I will speak on the use of social networking tools to build your mediation practice under the auspices of the SCMA Professional Development Committee...

Negotiating Emotion (and Client Development) with Arnie Herz at Legal Sanity

Posted on April 03, 2009
(image by the great Charles Fincher at LawComix) Thanks first to LexBlog for giving yesterday's post here a shout-out but more importantly, thanks to LexBlog for giving Arnie Herz' post at Legal Sanity Why lawyers should get emotional with clients coverage in the same daily compilation of LexBlog client posts, a tremendous resource I highly recommend you include on your news reader...

The Godfather of Collaborative Law Talks about Litigation and its Discontents

Posted on April 02, 2009
Discouraged by the adversarial process?  Looking for lawyers who will handle your commercial dispute without going to "war" with all the expense and collateral damage that involves? This excellent talk by Webb has been viewed 202 times, while "Drunk Lawyer" below has been viewed by nearly 300,000 people...

Good News for Mediators and Mediation Advocates Alike at Mediate.com in April

Posted on April 02, 2009
Interviews with ADR giants: Mediate.com opens video archive for month of April Posted by: Diane Levin in Cool Things on the Web, Mediation, Mediation in Practice Mediate.com, the world's premier source for news, information, and articles about mediation, has opened its video archive to the public during the month of April...

Getting Your Opponent to the Bargaining Table without Appearing Weak

Posted on April 01, 2009
Transparency Will Eliminate Unnecessary Wariness Between Parties from the April 1, 2009 Daily Journal     FORUM COLUMN By Victoria Pynchon As a mediator, the question I hear most frequently from lawyers is "How do I convince my opponent to sit down and negotiate without losing my competitive advantage?" Believe it or not, the answer is transparency...

"Winning" the Negotiation with Insights from the Social Psychology of Conflict

Posted on March 31, 2009
Negotiating to Win View more presentations from Victoria Pynchon.

Litigation in Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Posted on March 31, 2009
Think of the cave as being "your side" of "the case" -- the facts that fit within the "elements" of the cause of action that will entitle your client to a remedy. Think of the outside world as representing the lived experience of both parties with all of the texture, ambiguity, dimensionality, particularity and depth of human experience and the particular experience of injustice...

Solo Practice University Art of the Deposition: The Basics

Posted on March 29, 2009
The Basics Power Point Presentation for the first class on April 11, 2009.  For my students only.

Pursuing a Divide and Conquer Negotiation Strategy? Don't Miss New California Case Law on Good Faith Settlement Findings

Posted on March 28, 2009
Challenges to good faith settlements that cut off the rights of non-settling defendants to seek indemnification and contribution from settling defendants are nearly always doomed to failure.  Trial courts are understandably eager to clear their dockets and there's no docket-clean-up pitcher like the first defendant to settle...

Los Angeles Daily Journal Profiles Mediator Victoria Pynchon

Posted on March 27, 2009
    Hands-on Approach Mediator Victoria Pynchon relies heavily on human dynamics in helping parties acknowledge realities they may prefer to avoid...

Negotiating First Year Legal Practice: The Art of the Deposition at Solo Practice University

Posted on March 25, 2009
As many of my readers know, I'll be giving a live online full semester Art of the Deposition Course over at Solo Practice University. I'll tell you more about it when I have a little more time.  Right now I want to make an offer to any young lawyer who is available to take the course twice a month on Saturdays at 10:00 a...

Can Mediation Evolve into a Global Profession by Michael McIIwrath

Posted on March 25, 2009
Can Mediation Evolve into a Global Profession? by Michael McIllwarth *(.pdf) This year, 2009, celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, whose theory about how change occurs over time in organisms has had an impact far beyond the biological sciences...

Above the Law Slays a Few Sacred Cows for Blawg Review #204

Posted on March 23, 2009
It rarely gets any better than this.  Here's Elie Mystal's intro to tempt you into the the whole catastrophe. Here at Above the Law, we thrive on taking a vat of hydrochloric acid to the veneer of the legal profession and exposing the original craftsmanship underneath...

Maximize Settlement Opportunities by Maximizing Insurance Coverage

Posted on March 22, 2009
Wondering how to settle construction litigation in the midst of an economic downturn that has emptied your contractor clients' pockets? Check out How Can Insulation Contractors Maximize Insurance Coverage over at Scott Godes' excellent Corporate Insurance Blog...

Negotiating the Recession with Social Networking

Posted on March 22, 2009
If you want to negotiate from a position of power, you need to know Robert Cialdini's Rules of Influence:   Reciprocation - People tend to return a favor. Thus, the pervasiveness of free samples in marketing. In his conferences, he often uses the example of Ethiopia providing thousands of dollars in humanitarian aid to Mexico just after the 1985 earthquake, despite Ethiopia suffering from a crippling famine and civil war at the time...

Huh?

Posted on March 21, 2009
Assuming that suspicious stock sales by a member of a corporation's board of directors may constitute circumstantial evidence of scienter for purposes of establishing a fraud or fraud-related cause of action under California law--where director sold less than 35 percent of his total shares after having been provided with negative information about company's economic prospects over a period of nine months prior to selling--such activity did not support conclusion that sales were suspicious...

New SoCal Elder Care Mediation Training Program Announced

Posted on March 20, 2009
Essentials For Elder Adult Mediation A training program for experienced mediators in cooperation with the Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Peace Building Program California State University, Dominguez Hills April 30-May 2, 2009 Training Features and Topic • Lead trainers with extensive adult (elder) mediation and training experience • Speakers with expertise from multi-disciplines serving older adults and families • Skill building exercises and case studies for practical applications • Building awareness and appreciation for unique and typical experiences of aging • What makes Adult (Elder) Mediation different? • Model standards and ethical framework for practicing Adult (Elder) Mediation • The dynamics of family and intergenerational conflict • Balancing autonomy and responsibility in Adult (Elder) Mediation • Empowering choices and voices of parties in mediation • Working with other professionals in the 'aging services network' • Convening and pre-mediation intake approaches to enhance participation • Addressing myths & realities of aging • Understanding the spectrum of capacity to participate in mediation • Impacts of bias, ageism, stereotypes and perceptions on mediation • Overview of elder abuse, red flags, safety issues and limits of mediation • Recognizing elder law matters in civil rights, financial and other legal concerns • Overview of the Probate Court process • Awareness of the L...

More on Stringfellow, Environmental Liabilities and the Policies that Did or Did Not Cover Them

Posted on March 19, 2009
What's the best thing about my tenure litigating environmental liability insurance coverage cases?  Besides the great intellectual puzzle they proved to be?  Besides the lasting friendships formed with members of joint defense teams?  Besides the chance they gave me to appear before some of the best Judges in the State (Judge Carolyn Kuhl, for instance, in the Los Angeles Complex Court)? The way these cases irritated my justice-sensors and led me into a career as a mediator?  No, none of those...

Your Negotiation Partner is Not Your Adversary

Posted on March 19, 2009
Thanks to Diane Levin at the Mediation Channel for pointing me to a recent post by Ken Adams about the adversarial versus the "meeting of the minds" approach to contract drafting.  Thanks to both! Contracts as a Relationship-Building Tool That's a long way from my let's-have-a-meeting-of-the-minds approach...

A trial lawyer, a mediator and a jury consultant walk into a bar . . . .

Posted on March 17, 2009
 . . . and they're all talking about the same thing!  How do you put the "clothes," the drama, the pathos, the dimensionalty and texture back into the sterile legal cause of action we litigators have been working on for months, years, even decades...

Negotiation as Poker Game

Posted on March 14, 2009
Negotiation as Poker Game View more presentations from Victoria Pynchon.

Negotiating Legal Decisions

Posted on March 14, 2009
I'm bookmarking this article.  I'll translate its main points from the academese to plain English this week-end along with insights on how to help your opponent make the legal decision you want him to make -- settle the case in the range of reason...

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