Category: Reviews

Reviews/Disclosures/Confidentiality: Articles Highlight Problems With Post-Award Investigation Unearthing Arbitrator’s Bias, and Problems With Holes In Mediation Confidentiality Privilege

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 […]

News: Consumer Arbitration–Fair and Efficient?

May 8, 2014 · News, Reviews

Comment on a Comment:  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Arbitration Study Preliminary Results       Is consumer arbitration fair and efficient?      On May 6, 2014, Steven I. Zeisel of the Consumer Bankers Association, “The Voice of the Retail Banking Industry,” posted a comment about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Arbitration Study Preliminary Results, under the […]

Recommended Reading: Inside the Caucus: An Empirical Analysis Of Mediation From Within

January 30, 2014 · Reviews

Article Offers Statistical Analysis Of What Works In Mediation       UCLA School of Law offered a program today presented by Daniel and Lisa Klerman, entitled “Inside the Caucus: An Empirical Analysis of Mediation from Within”, based on an article of the same name.  Poking around on the Internet, I found that the article is available […]

Review: Significant ADR Cases In 2013

January 26, 2014 · Reviews

Sixteen Cases – And We Posted About Twelve Of Them . . . Plus One More Supreme Court Case . . .      On January 10, 2014, I attended a meeting of the Orange County Bar Association Litigation Section.  The law firm of Connor, Fletcher & Hedenkamp LLP made a presentation on new statutes, new […]

Recommended Reading: Dr. Donna Shestowsky’s Article, “The Psychology of Procedural Preference: How Litigants Evaluate Legal Procedures Ex Ante”

January 19, 2014 · Reviews

At The Beginning Of Their Case, Litigants Prefer Mediation To Most Adjudicative Procedures       Dr. Donna Shestowsky, a Professor of Law at UC Davis, with a doctorate in psychology, has authored a very interesting study on litigants’ preferences, at the beginning of their case, for different dispute resolution procedures.  Her article, “The Psychology of Procedural […]

Recommended Reading: Anatomy of a Mediation by James C. Freund

February 24, 2013 · Reviews

“A Dealmaker’s Distinctive Approach to Resolving Dollar Disputes and Other Commercial Conflicts”      James C. Freund, former Skadden, Arps M&A transactional attorney turned mediator, is the author of the engagingly written and interesting new book Anatomy of a Mediation (Practising Law Institute 2012).  Mr. Freund’s “anatomy” is a clinical tour, by a very wise guide, […]

The Supreme Court and Arbitration – 2012 and 2013

January 5, 2013 · Pending Cases, Reviews

     Recommended reading:  two posts by attorney Liz Kramer in Arbitration Nation:  “2012 in Arbitration Law:  Is Class Arbitration Naughty or Nice?” and “Preview of SCOTUS’s 2013 Double Feature on Class Action.” That Was the Year That Was      In 2012, the big issue was class arbitration, with several states having pro-class-arbitration decisions reversed based […]

Review in The Wall Street Journal: Boilerplate

December 21, 2012 · Reviews

  End of the Rule of Law, or Useful Legal Fiction?      Arbitration, like boilerplate, creates a private legal system that displaces the public one.  Whereas the common law depends on the rule of law, and creates a system of precedent that is available to the public, an arbitration award is typically a private affair, […]