Wise Mediators Know: To Err Is Human
The title of this post, of course, is from the Alexander Pope quote, “To err is human. To forgive divine.” This post isn’t about forgiveness. However, lest we forget, we are all human! So what does that mean? For one, it means we aren’t machines programmed to automatically produce correct responses in all situations. We … Read More
Controlling Difficult Clients During Mediations
IT’S NOT EASY. IN RARE INSTANCES, IT’S NOT EVEN POSSIBLE. I recently wrapped up a mediation in which we settled two Federal and two State Court cases as a part of the settlement. There were 15 attorneys involved, and it took us nearly five months to pull-together all of the moving parts. What took so … Read More
Should Mediators Offer Case Evaluations?
MEA CULPA: I had a busy summer. Family vacations. Getting my daughter married. Fishing in Alaska. A week at Mayo Clinic for family. AND a hectic work schedule. As my wife might say, metaphorically, I let the grass grow high on my blog! With that, back to work. I recently read a good article by … Read More
Mediation As A Tool For Minimizing Risk
“You’ve got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em” Kenny Rogers For most people, risk is a four-letter word. It’s something lawyers deal with every day. You’re paid to minimize, evaluate, and know when risk is worth taking. When you draft a contract, your client expects you to anticipate issues before … Read More
Successful Mediations Satisfy Clients’ Need To Be Heard
We often hear the phrase “He just needs his day in Court.” This phrase can mean any number of things, but I think it often means a person really needs the opportunity to be heard. Sometimes a person just needs a third party to hear both sides of an issue and help find the resolution. … Read More
In Mediation As In Life, Just OK Is Not OK
As an undergraduate, I majored in finance, but I’ve always been something of a student of marketing — and I love great ad campaigns. By “great,” I don’t just mean the ones I enjoy — but the ones that really stuck with me, and delivered results for the companies who paid for them. Here are … Read More
Trump & Congress Conduct Crash Course In Bad Mediation Practices.
Justice Potter Stewart is the author of a quote we’ve probably all heard. Wrestling to define what constituted pornography, he said, “I know it when I see it.” The same thing might be said for bad negotiating tactics. Sadly, we’ve all had front row seats to recent negotiations conducted so poorly, they’re likely one day … Read More
Attorneys In Mediation: Don’t Beat A Dead Horse!
In one of my very first columns for this blog, I advised my readers that persistence wins in mediation. While I stand by that advice, there is another kind of persistence that absolutely, positively doesn’t win in mediation — the kind referred-to in this post’s title. Beating a dead horse: What a descriptive phrase, when … Read More
To Be A Better Mediator, Trust The Process.
If you’re an Alabama football fan (or, for that matter, a Bama hater), there’s a good chance you’ve heard Nick Saban talk about “the process” — the term he uses in describing his approach to building championship-caliber football players and teams. Despite recent evidence to the contrary 🙁, that process has served his program very … Read More
A senior partner of the law firm of Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff & Brandt, Bill Ratliff has been an adjunct professor of Mediation at the University of Alabama since 2009.
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