Author Archives: abfifer

Forgiving Nazis: “I Highly Recommend It”

July 16, 2015 – 3:18 pm

Eva (Mozes) Kor was ten years old when she arrived from Hungary with her family at Auschwitz in May 1944. Despite experiments performed on her by the infamous Josef Mengele, she survived, and now runs a memorial to Holocaust victims in Terre Haute, Indiana, called CANDLES (Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiment Survivors). Her […]

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Exonerated

July 7, 2015 – 5:12 pm

I’ve been moved by the recent revelation of a wrongful conviction here in Grand Rapids. When he was just 16, Quentin Carter was found guilty by a Kent County jury in 1992 of raping a 10-year-old neighbor girl and sent to prison. He served his full sentence—17 years—, despite his good behavior in prison, because he […]

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Win-Win-Win

June 17, 2015 – 4:35 pm

I don’t usually write about my mediations, in order to protect their confidentiality. But this one is too rich not to share. (Some identifying details have been changed.) A business dispute resulted in a small claims action that went to mediation through our local Dispute Resolution Center of West Michigan. After each side told their […]

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Mediation to Address Church Bell Dispute

May 12, 2015 – 4:07 pm

Neighbors of a church in Burlington, Vermont, have agreed to go to mediation with representatives from Christ the King Catholic Church over the issue of the church’s bells. The neighbors complained to the City about the church bells, wondering whether the ringing violated the City’s noise ordinance. The Assistant City Attorney, Gregg Meyer, is quoted […]

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Agreement in Principle Not Enforceable

May 5, 2015 – 7:56 pm

Michigan’s Court of Appeals decided this week that a mediation agreement was too vague to be enforceable. It’s not unusual for a mediation to end with a hand-written document that contemplates another document to finally settle the dispute. In fact, it’s fairly common for the mediation of a litigated case, where parties are represented by […]

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