Jeff Daar And Gary Benton Receive Awards For Past And Continuing Contributions To Alternative Dispute Resolution. The California Lawyers Association held its annual meeting this past weekend at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City. Jeff Daar and Gary Benton received awards for outstanding contributions to the profession and to ADR. Both Jeff and Gary […]
From the California State Bar Website: Alternative Dispute Resolution Certification Working Group. Purpose Effective January 1, 2025, new Business and Professions Code section 6173 requires the State Bar to create a voluntary certification program for alternative dispute resolution (ADR) firms, providers, and practitioners. This program aims to promote adherence to ethical standard for ADR […]
The Case Is Hohenshelt v. Superior Court. We have written about the Hohenshelt case twice in the Daily Journal. The first time around, the case was in the Court of Appeal. After it was decided by the California Supreme Court, with a majority opinion, some concurrence, and some disagreement, we wrote a second article for […]
The Case Is Morris S. Getzels v. State Bar. We are pleased to be able to give readers a direct link to our July 2, 2025 Daily Journal article about the Getzels case. The article is entitled “The curious exclusion of inactive attorneys from mediation.” And here is a link: https://calmediation.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Getzels-DJ-7-2-25.pdf
Typepad announced rather precipitously that this blog would become extinct at the end of September 2025. Yikes! We had to scramble to migrate this blog from Typepad to a new platform. Since we have published this blog since 2012, and it has 1200 posts about California mediation and arbitration, it seemed worth expending some time, […]
A "Headless" PAGA Claims Is Permitted Pre-2024, But Now The Law Has Changed. Headless Statue of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Carole Raddato, photographer. A “headless” PAGA case is one in which the plaintiff abandons […]
The Court Disapproved of Felisilda v. FCA US LLC (2020) To The Extent It Suggested Manufacturers Could Make Use Of Dealers' Arbitration Clauses. An issue knocking about in California Courts of Appeal has been whether Ford Motor Company and other automobile manufacturers could piggyback off arbitration clauses found in the contracts between dealerships and […]
Judicial Review Of The Fairness Of A Derivative Lawsuit Settlement Is Much Like Review Of The Settlement Of A Class Action. Norman v. Strateman, A170356 (1/3 6/20/25) (Petrou, Fujisaki, Rodriguez), involved a cryptocurrency exchange dispute requiring judicial approval of derivative settlements. Donald Norman, Patrick Strateman, and Amir Taaki established Intersango, a cryptocurrency exchange that […]
The Two Agreements Were Read Together As One Agreement. In Silva v. Cross Country Healthcare, Inc., B337435 (2/5 6.13/25) (Hoffstadt, Moor, Kim), employees Isabel Silva, Alejandro Garcia, and Janai Velasco challenged their employer’s attempt to compel arbitration of their wage-and-hour and related claims. Each plaintiff had signed two agreements at hiring: (1) an Arbitration […]
A SCOTUS Case Of First Impression. Our next case, a US Supreme Court case, shows that the Court can still issue unanimous opinions in cases that require the application of statutes and that are not politically polarizing. In CC/Devas (Mauritius) Ltd. v. Antrix Corp. Ltd., No. 23-1201, 605 U.S. __ (6/5/25) (Justice Alito), […]