Resolution Strategies | A Monthly E-Newsletter
LOSS PREVENTION
As I was watching the NFL Wild Card, Divisional and Conference Championship games last month, it struck me that mediation and "the prevent defense" share the same DNA — the objective of both is to manage risk and prevent, to the greatest extent possible, a loss that might otherwise have been avoided [...]
A PROPORTIONAL RESPONSE
“What is the virtue of a proportional response? Why is it good?” President Josiah Bartlet, The West Wing, Episode 3 As anyone who’s glanced at my Judicate West profile knows, I'm a die-hard fan of The West Wing. Years ago, my wife gave me the entire series on DVD as a birthday gift and I've lost cou [...]
FLYING BLIND
It might not be immediately apparent, but mediators and air traffic controllers share similar missions. Both receive, process and evaluate real-time data and then transmit critical information to others, providing the guidance those others require to reach a particular destination. Every now and the [...]
“EASY” DOESN’T DO IT
After nearly four hours of negotiations, the parties were still more than a million dollars apart. Convinced that plaintiffs could not prevail on liability, defendants refused to offer more than a high five-figure settlement in a wrongful death case. When presented with defendants’ best and final of [...]
THE RUTHLESS COURT
Today is "the first Monday in October" — the day designated by Congress for the Supreme Court of the United States to begin its new term. For the first time in the Court's 233-year history, the Justices who took the bench this morning included an African-American woman, Ketanji Brown Jackson. Equall [...]