Author Archives: abfifer

Case Evaluation is Changing

December 4, 2021 – 9:53 am

The Michigan Supreme Court has adopted changes to the case evaluation process, over strong dissent. Case evaluation is a settlement technique, perhaps unique to Michigan, where attorneys present summaries of their case to a panel of three disinterested attorneys who come up with a number (“award”) representing the panel’s determination of the case’s worth. That […]

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Non-Disclosure Agreements: Are Mediators Unwittingly Perpetuating Abuse?

November 27, 2021 – 1:56 pm

Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are contracts binding parties to keep quiet, often to keep quiet about their dispute and its settlement. NDAs have come under increasing scrutiny of late, because they have permitted wrongdoers to go on to harm others. One famous example is Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who was sued several times for his sexual […]

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Kentucky Court of Appeals Enforces ICC Clause

November 19, 2021 – 4:45 pm

The Kentucky Court of Appeals has ordered enforcement of a clause compelling the parties to med/arb through the Institute for Christian Conciliation. The case (Whitefield Academy, et al v Alford, et al, Case No. 2021-DA-0678-I, issued November 4, 2021) involves a Christian school in Louisville, Ky. When the parents enrolled their daughter in the school […]

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Apology Makes Things Worse

October 22, 2021 – 10:51 am

Here’s an example of an offender’s well-meaning apology just making matters worse. Professor Bright Sheng, a long-time professor of music and composition at the University of Michigan, is teaching an undergrad composition seminar on Shakespeare this semester, and on September 10 he showed the 1965 film “Othello,” in which Laurence Olivier appears in blackface. As […]

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Mediating the Presence of a Bible

October 20, 2021 – 10:23 am

Should a Bible be included in a display honoring missing veterans near the entrance of a veterans’ hospital? A veterans hospital in Manchester, New Hampshire, thought so, but two U.S. Air Force veterans objected. Somehow the dispute ended up in federal court, but now the parties have agreed to mediation. Too bad they didn’t try […]

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