Category Archives: Mediation

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 […]

How Does Litigation Funding Affect Mediation?

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 […]

Mediation Tragedy

Reports of violence associated with mediations are rare, but they do happen.  One occurred this week in Goldsboro, NC, where a client shot and killed his lawyer at the end of the mediation, then killed himself. While details of the mediation itself are sketchy, reports are that a personal injury mediation was taking place at […]

More Litigation About Mediation

One of the most interesting mediation articles I’ve read was called “Disputing Irony” by Prof. James Coben, 11 Harvard Neg. L. Rev. 43, 98 (2006). He and his team at Hamline Law School surveyed all the U.S. appellate court cases, state and federal, 1999-2003, that mentioned “mediation,” to see why cases that should have ended […]