Tag: Gary Shaffer

Perseverance

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{4 minutes to read} Sometime back, I wrote a blog about how long divorce mediations can take. Divorce mediations typically take longer than most other mediations because people involved in divorce, especially when there are children involved, need to create new lives for themselves and their families. This can take a while. Very often it is during the mediation that a couple goes through the actual process of physically separating, working out the details of how they will handle finances, children, personal property, and whatever else may come up. It’s also common that one spouse is more eager to get divorced than the other.

It’s Never Too Early to . . .

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{4 minutes to read} It’s never too early to mediate. I have written before on automatic mediation, meaning court-annexed mediation programs where the first step in the litigation process is to send the case out to mediation. Lawyers and judges who do not have experience with such programs often react negatively to the idea of cases going to mediation so early in the process. Those reactions are often based on the assumption that cases are only ready for mediation after all discovery has been completed; documents exchanged; depositions held; medical exams held when needed; etc. This assumption is wrong.

Mediating Online

Young brothers talking with tin can telephone on grunge backgrou

{3 minutes to read} Among the many crises created by the pandemic are shuttered, or barely functioning, courts. The backlogs are growing. And growing. Juries aren’t being picked. Trials aren’t being held. How do cases get resolved? How will the courts function again?

Some courts have begun doing online conferencing. However, as everyone has noticed, we seem to live in a Zoom world these days and Zoom mediations are taking off. These virtual meetings have emerged as a way to unclog court backlogs and bring new benefits to litigants. They even offer some advantages and may reflect one way our post-pandemic world will look.

Honest Conversation – Mediation and the Pandemic

{5 minutes to read} First some business: I am available for video and/or audio mediations and conferencing.

Image of a dishonest man whose nose has grown long because he lied

Next: I don’t know where things will be when this blog is published. At the moment, everyone probably wants a break from the coronavirus conversation. However, it is the 500-lb. elephant in the room. In fact, as of this writing, it’s the only elephant in the room.

So what, if anything, can mediation teach us about where we are? What can we draw upon to make things better? Two things come to mind: the need for honest conversation, and making the best of imperfect situations. They’re related but let’s take them one at a time. This blog will address honest conversation, the next, making lemonade.

Avoiding Litigation Through Mediation Contract Clauses

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{3 minutes to read} Alan Gettner and I recently published an article in the Fall 2018 issue of New York Dispute Resolution Lawyer that described a simple method of using a mediation clause in a contract to avoid costly litigation. The gist of it is a relatively short “notice and disclosure” provision in the contract that requires parties to:

Notify the other side of any dispute before commencing a lawsuit.
Provide relevant documents and information about the dispute.

Ouch! When can I Collect . . .

{3 minutes to read} So how long does a personal injury mediation take? You will probably find this surprising, but it depends.

Personal injury cases come in many, many different sizes. There are fender benders with bruises, class actions, medical malpractice cases (many different sizes there, too), “minor” injuries, major ones, in-between ones. And of course there are damages, which often determine the length of litigation and of a mediation.

Divorce Mediation: How Long Does it Take?

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{4:30 minutes to read} One question I always get whenever someone calls about a divorce mediation is, “How long does it usually take?” The “It depends” answer to this one is far more accurate than in most other mediations.

Many non-divorce mediations take a full day. There is something about participants getting tired and it getting dark that stimulates movement. No one wants to leave after 8, 10, or 12 hours with nothing to show for it.

In divorce mediations, a similar process plays out, but never in one day. And single sessions rarely go over two hours. Couples get exhausted by that point. Plus they need to reflect on and sometimes even live with issues, emotions, and possible decisions.

How Long Does a Mediation Take?

{3:30 minutes to read} Someone recently asked me how long I would expect a mediation to take. I thought hard for two or three milliseconds and said, “It depends.”

So, how long should one expect a mediation to take? I’m glad you asked. I’ll address different areas of mediation length over the next few blog posts, but let’s start with a commercial case.

Employment Mediation — If Not Now, When?

{3:30 minutes to read} I recently had a conversation with two attorneys in an employment matter that came my way through a court annexed mediation program that automatically sends all employment cases to mediation.

I have written before about the benefits of “mandatory mediation,” which until somewhat recently was often thought of as an oxymoron. One axiom of mediation has been that the parties are in charge of the process, including the decision whether or not to mediate. However, it turns out this theory has some flaws. The most serious is that many litigants would love to try to resolve their cases early on, but don’t want to make the first move in suggesting mediation for fear it will be a sign of weakness.

New Tax Rules Make 2018 “The Year of the Divorce”

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{4 minutes to read} Breakin’ up is not just hard to do—it’s often expensive. But for the past 75 years or so, alimony has been deductible for the payor and income to the payee. This often helped soften the economic fallout of divorce by allowing the higher-earning spouse to pay alimony to the lower-earning spouse so the “family” could reduce its overall tax burden. Since child support is neither income nor deductible, couples often agreed to allocate more money to alimony and less to child support to increase the overall pot available to the family post divorce.

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