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Draft Settlement Agreements with Care or You May Give Up More than You Bargained For 7 Jul 2012 | 05:12 am
The first sentence in an appellate opinion can strike fear in the heart of any advocate. I should know. Nearly twenty years ago the California Court of Appeal began its opinion on a losing appeal of m...
Ignore This Mediation Clause and Say Good-Bye to Your Attorney Fee Award 15 Jun 2012 | 04:15 am
A recent opinion of the California Court of Appeal (click here to read) reversed a trial court’s decision to award attorney fees to the prevailing defendant homeowners in a real estate non-disclosure ...
Three Yards and a Cloud of Dust: More X’s and O’s from the Competitive World of Litigation 17 Apr 2012 | 11:11 am
I like to read and report on appellate court cases that illustrate the benefits of self-determination in the mediation process as opposed to court-imposed adjudication in the civil trial process. It m...
Don’t Ignore the Impact of Judicial Discretion on the Outcome and Cost of Trial 25 Feb 2012 | 09:56 am
Discretion is the better part of valor, a phrase that can be traced to a 15th Century English writer named Caxton, became part of the English vernacular after the publication of William Shakespeare’s ...
Calculating Settlement Value Like a Super Bowl Champion 31 Jan 2012 | 07:57 am
The New York Giants are playing the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, again. What would happen if the Patriots prepared for the game by focusing exclusively on their strengths and the Giants’ we...
Deja Brew: A Mediator Looks Back at the Hot Coffee Case or How to Keep Your Dispute from Spilling into Court 17 Jan 2012 | 10:26 am
Even after twenty years, the so-called “McDonald’s coffee case” or “hot coffee case” is still the poster child of tort reform advocates and the rally cry of consumer attorneys. The former decry a lega...
Ron’s Top Ten List: Things Your Mediator Wants You To Do So He Or She Can Help You Settle Your Lawsuit 13 Oct 2011 | 06:08 am
NUMBER ONE: Exchange with your opponent salient information about the case well in advance of the mediation. If you represent the plaintiff you may want to ask defense counsel what addi...
Mediation: The Antidote to the Uncertainty of Trial 24 Sep 2011 | 06:01 am
Mediation is the antidote to the uncertainty of trial and most often leads to the timely, cost-effective resolution of disputes. In mediation, the people with “skin in the game,” the litigants, not ju...
Indemnity Contracts and the Duty to Defend: You mean I have to pay even if I was not negligent? 31 Aug 2011 | 06:13 am
Benjamin Franklin’s ” Poor Richard’s Almanack” had it right: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This was true for farmers in 1739 and it is true for lawyers and their clients in 2011. ...
Predicting Risk is the Essence of Good Lawyering 6 Jul 2011 | 08:36 am
Trial advocacy is often dramatized in movies and television. We see persuasive lawyers depicted in emotional closing argument scenes and intense lawyers in those “gotcha” moments of searing cross-exam...
