The growing Medicare shortfall in Washington has many politicians looking for ways to bridge the funding gap. As a result a new law, effective July 1, 2009, has been enacted which requires liability insurers (which include carriers who write CGL polici...

Counsel can no longer assume that anything that happens, especially written notes, is protected by the confidentiality provision. Even if the parties sign the confidentiality agreement at the beginning of mediation that does not mean that everything is c...

California is seeking to be the first State in the nation to mandate that employee's get paid sick leave and continue to work while using Marijuana for medicinal purposes. At the California State Bar Conference of Delegates in September, California atto...

The dramatic life of the Murphy case came to a quiet end when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case which signaled the taxation of personal injury damages. The U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit shocked the tax world with its initial Mu...

The California Supreme Court, in Simmons v. Ghaderi (July 21, 2008), has hammered in the last nail and has made confidentiality of mediation proceedings iron clad. The court held that there can be NO implied waiver of mediation confidentiality. An oral...

After forming a new ADR firm, I am always asked the question, why did you choose the name 'Centurion Mediation' for your business? Centurions conjure up images of battles and aggressiveness, not the attributes of a mediator who should be peace buildin...

Diversity happens when it has a positive impact on the bottom line. This was the overall consensus of representative corporations and law firms this past year at an ABA Dispute Resolution Section Diversity Forum. Mediation is losing its effectiveness b...