by Marvin Schuldiner | Sep 27, 2021 | Commercial Mediation
When I teach mediation, one of the definitions we discuss is how mediation is a guided negotiation. Participants need to be able to negotiate, yet we live in a society where we rarely negotiate. And when we do (buying a car or house), we generally hate it. The ADR...
by Marvin Schuldiner | Jun 16, 2021 | Commercial Mediation
Usually when people think of force majeure, they think of hurricanes and other natural disasters — not usually a pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought force majeure to the forefront of legal issues. Force majeure is a contractual concept where a party is...
by Marvin Schuldiner | May 25, 2021 | Commercial Mediation, Lawsuits
The default in our society for resolving disputes is litigation — filing a lawsuit in court. It beats dueling. Ask Alexander Hamilton how that worked out for him. Generally speaking, we do not put enough resources into running our court systems, but the...
by Marvin Schuldiner | Feb 11, 2021 | Commercial Mediation, Lawsuits
The pre-COVID NBA championship of the Toronto Raptors over the Golden State Warriors had a controversial ending. Raptors president Masai Ujiri, who is Black, was prevented from going on the floor at the Warrior’s court in Oakland, California by Alan Strickland,...
by Marvin Schuldiner | Feb 2, 2021 | Commercial Mediation, Labor and Employment
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) adjusted to the coronavirus (COVID) pandemic by converting to holding mediations via video conference. This was initially done under a six-month pilot program that started in July 2020. The EEOC just announced the...
by Marvin Schuldiner | Jan 12, 2021 | Commercial Mediation, Lawsuits
The rate at which trials are used to resolve lawsuits has dropped significantly over the decades. We are now at the point where less than 1% of cases are settled via a trial. In the 2019-2020 court year (July to June), in the Civil Part of Law Division in Superior...