Amis v. Greenberg Traurig LLP Acknowledges Supreme Court’s “Near Categorical Prohibition Against Judicially Crafted Exceptions To The Mediation Confidentiality Statutes” Amis v. Greenberg Traurig LLP, No. B248447 (2/3 March 18, 2015) (Kitching, Aldrich, Lavin) (published) holds “a malpractice plaintiff cannot circumvent mediation confidentiality by advancing inferences about his former attorney’s supposed acts or omissions […]
Court Refuses To Carve Out Judicial Exception To Mediation Privilege While Explaining Why Privilege Simply Didn’t Apply Here. Few are the cases in which courts have pierced the mediation confidentiality privilege, because the courts have said the privilege is almost absolute, refusing to craft judicial exceptions to the statutory privilege, Evid. Code sections […]
Famous Family, Simple Legal Principles. Though the opinion opens with a fanfare announcing, “George R. Hearst, Jr. . . scion of the wealthy Hearst family,” the facts and legal points are actually pretty simple. George and Susan Hearst married in 1998, and entered into a marital property agreement (MPA) in 2002, whereby Susan […]
Also, Settlement Documents May Be Admitted For Purposes Other Than Proving Liability. While documents subject to the mediation privilege may be inadmissible as evidence, an error in admitting the documents into evidence will not matter to the Court of Appeal, if admission of the evidence resulted in harmless error. That was the case in […]
Stipulated Judgment May Not Have Contained Magic Words, But It Was Sufficient To Express Parties’ Intent To Waive Confidentiality And Allow Enforcement Daly v. Oyster, B249255 (2/1 July 29, 2014) (Chaney, Johnson, Wiley) (published) deals with that nettlesome situation that sometimes arises after mediation when papers are not filed with the court, the case […]
Maricopa County Waived Argument That Evidence Admitted To Show Settlement Should Be Privileged Under Federal Law 87 Yard Punt . . . In Wilcox v. Arpaio, No. 12-16418 (9th Cir. Feb. 2, 2014) (Tashima, Farris, Reinhardt), the Ninth Circuit avoids having to “determine whether a mediation privilege should be recognized under federal common […]
Recommended Reading: Post-Arbitral Award Investigation Of Bias. Paul J. Dubow, an arbitrator and mediator in San Francisco, asks whether post-award investigation can vacate arbitration awards in “ADR Update”, California Litigation (Vol. 27, No. 1 2014), p. 37. It is easy for an unhappy client’s attorney to do a Google search about an arbitrator […]
Confidentiality Provisions Are “Clear And Absolute.” Yet again, the Court of Appeal reminds us, “[w]e have repeatedly said that these [mediation] confidentiality provisions are clear and absolute.” Syers Properties III, Inc. v. Rankin, et al., Case No. A136018 (1st Dist. Div. 2 May 5, 2014) (Kline, Haerle, Brick) (unpublished). In fact, I am convinced […]
Contract Claims For Breach Of Settlement Agreement Are Not Subject To Anti-SLAPP Motion, But Fraud Claims Based On Oral Representations Are Subject To Anti-SLAPP Motion At issue in Praetorian Ins. Co. v. The Dunnon Law Firm, F066590 (5th Dist. March 3, 2014) (Hill, Gomes, Pena) (unpublished) was whether prelitigation settlement negotiations, resulting in a […]
Here, Release Of Attorneys From Malpractice Claim Resulted In Prevailing Party Status and Substantial Attorney’s Fees Award In Kim v. Lim, Ruger & Kim, No. B240378 (2nd Dist. Div. 4 Feb. 6, 2014) (Epstein, Willhite, Suzukawa) (unpublished), the Court of Appeal ruled that a couple, who lost a malpractice action, had unambiguously released their […]