Author Archives: abfifer

Proposed Michigan Rule Could Impair Christian Arbitration Clause

February 23, 2022 – 4:58 pm

In my post of February 11, 2022, I wrote about legislative initiatives that could prevent arbitration clauses in contracts between Christians from being legally enforceable. Today I examine a judicial effort that would have a similar effect. Most world religions exhort their adherents not to sue one another, but rather to resolve their disputes within […]

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Legislation Could Affect Christian Arbitration

February 11, 2022 – 2:46 pm

It’s not uncommon for a contract to contain a “dispute resolution clause,” describing the process the parties will use if they have a dispute down the road regarding some aspect of their contract. Because Christians are not supposed to take their disputes to court (I Corinthians 6:1-7), many contracts between Christians – including churches, ministries, […]

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Enforceability of NDAs

February 9, 2022 – 1:27 pm

Following up on my post on November 27, 2021, regarding mediating Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), two scholars have just written an article for mediate.com on the legal enforceability of NDAs. They cite only a few cases, but conclude that courts are signaling “a willingness to rein in the most egregious abuses” of NDAs where they […]

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Universal Disclosure Protocol for Mediation

February 2, 2022 – 5:39 pm

Michigan mediators have been wrestling with what they must disclose to potential mediation parties, especially since the Hartman case. That was the divorce case where the mediator did not disclose to the husband or his attorney that she was good friends with the wife’s attorney—such good friends that she flew to Florida to spend a […]

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Confidentiality in Mediation: Tyler v Findling

January 22, 2022 – 1:15 pm

The Michigan Supreme Court upheld the confidentiality of mediation in a case decided last year, Tyler v Findling. The facts were somewhat unusual; the statement in question was made by one attorney (Mr. Findling) to another attorney, outside the presence of the mediator or the other mediation participants, and it did not concern the substance […]

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