The Lesson Here Is The Importance of Carefully Drafting Collaborative Law Agreements. How's this for a setup: "Ling and Paul Mueller married in 2009 and separated in 2017. During their marriage, they cultivated cannabis and buried the proceeds on their property." What could possibly go wrong? Plenty. The Muellers engaged in a collaborative […]
Under The Circumstances, The Mediator's Decision To Discuss The Mother's Move-Away Request Was "Understandable". In family law, disputes are often resolved through mediation. In Alkebulan v. Dunham, D069434 (4/1 7/20/17) (Benke, O'Rourke, Dato) (unpublished), father, who was unrepresented by counsel, felt blind-sided when mother raised the issue of a move-away order with their year-old […]
Here’s A Good Example Of Why It Is Harder To Set Aside A Mediated Spousal Settlement Than An Unmediated, Negotiated Settlement. In Marriage of Cooke, B257791 (2/7 10/17/16) (Segal, J.) (unpublished), the wife moved for entry of a stipulation for judgment that she and her husband signed. The opinion rather vividly describes the the […]
Mediator Gallup Walloped For Failure To Exhaust Administrative Remedies. Family services mediator Emily Gallup complained to her supervisor and other court management about “insufficient time for mediation appointments, inadequate review of records and gathering of facts, failure to consider criminal histories, failure to advocate for the best interests of the children, failure to offer […]
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 […]
Whether the Mediation Confidentiality Was Violated Is Not Crystal Clear From the Opinion We are always pleased when a case has something to say about mediation – there are far fewer written opinions about mediation than about arbitration. Aaronson petitioned to nullify her marriage with Oslica, on the ground of purported fraud […]