Author Archives: abfifer

Stop Asking About Mental Health

Michigan’s State Court Administrative Office took some steps recently to align mediation rules regarding parties’ mental health with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Mediators were previously encouraged to screen for mental health issues that might contribute to domestic violence, as part of the Domestic Violence Screening Protocol. For example, in assessing a party’s […]

Mediator Testifies

The Facts: A volunteer mediator for a community mediation center conducted a Zoom mediation in a domestic case over the issue of parenting time. Each party had an attorney, although the attorneys were not present in the mediation. The parties reached an agreement, after the father checked in by phone with his attorney. The mediator […]

King Charles Doesn’t Fully Apologize to Kenyans

The controversy over King Charles’s remarks in Kenya this week highlights the difference between a “full-blown” apology and a statement of regret. King Charles sounded quite sincere when he noted, “The wrongdoings of the past are the source of greatest sorrow and deepest regret” regarding colonial atrocities by British forces in Kenya in the 1950s. […]

A Plea-Deal Apology by a Trump Lawyer

Jenna Ellis, one of President Donald Trump’s attorneys after the November 2020 election, pled guilty this week in a Georgia court to aiding and abetting false statements and writings, a felony. In December 2020, she joined Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Ray Smith in making false allegations to the Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee that thousands […]

2023 Nanci Klein Award from the ADR Section

I was honored this week to receive the Nanci S. Klein Award from the ADR Section of the State Bar of Michigan. Nanci Klein was an early ADR leader in Michigan who devoted her considerable talents to the Community Dispute Resolution Program (CDRP), including leading Michigan’s largest CDRP provider, the Oakland Mediation Center, for ten […]