Author Archives: abfifer

Church Settles Dispute Through Courts

May 18, 2023 – 4:28 pm

The Evangel Church in Detroit had a dispute about its governance. Some leaders determined that the pastor should be selected by the board of elders, and then the pastor would select the members board of elders. But the church members contended that they had always had voting rights. This is not an uncommon debate in […]

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How Does Litigation Funding Affect Mediation?

March 31, 2023 – 4:29 pm

Litigation funding is a means of financing a lawsuit. A third party “invests” in the lawsuit, helping to pay for the costs of litigation, then collects a portion of the recovery. It mostly helps plaintiffs, especially parties who could not afford to sue, such as class actions. If its side does not prevail – in […]

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The 4 R’s of Apology

March 29, 2023 – 4:31 pm

Many experts recommend that we employ “the 4 R’s” when making an apology, to ensure that it’s a good apology. But there’s not complete agreement on which four R’s we need. Professor Carrie Petrucci recommended the following four R’s in her 2002 article on apologies, citing other apology scholars: (i) an expression of remorse or […]

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Another U.S. Pastor Sues for Defamation

March 25, 2023 – 3:04 pm

Pastors do not like being accused of scurrilous behavior. According to Scripture, the remedy is to resolve such issues within the church (I Corinthians 6:1-7) but some American pastors prefer to sue their accusers in the civil courts, even if the accuser is another Christian or Christian entity. (see, e.g., my blog posts on July […]

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Apology for Disruptive Protests

March 18, 2023 – 3:53 pm

The Honorable Stuart Kyle Duncan, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, was invited to speak at Stanford Law School last week, but hecklers prevented him from giving his talk, and U.S. marshals ended up escorting him out of the room. Two days later, he received a written apology letter […]

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