Resolution Strategies

Last week, I mediated a case in which two injured plaintiffs seemed ready to negotiate, but could not — held hostage by a dispute between two corporate defendants over additional insured status and contractual indemnity obligations. Although both plaintiffs were prepared to engage and the gap, on it [...]

The traditional negotiation dance assumes an open exchange of demands and offers. Occasionally, however, caution counsels otherwise — as it did in a mediation a few months back. Returning for a second session — the first having stalled over coverage issues — Plaintiff opened with a $3,000,000 demand [...]

Last month, in Safety in Numbers, I addressed the concern that Baseball Mediation™ is “too risky,” using statistical data to quantify how narrow the risk has been — $70,000 or less, to date — for cases in which the impasse-breaking mechanism is triggered. Since then, two closely related questions ha [...]

During a mediation three weeks ago, I asked counsel for plaintiff whether there was any interest in converting the matter to Baseball Mediation™. Without hesitation, he responded “It’s too risky.” His reaction hardly came as a surprise — I've heard it before from both sides. But the numbers tell a d [...]

When Dancing with the Stars premiered back in 2005, my daughter Jamie was just eight years old. Every week, we'd watch together — with unabashed and unapologetic enthusiasm — as the professional dancers magically transformed their celebrity partners into honest-to-goodness ballroom dancers, able to [...]