Is it just business or is it personal?

After a trial is over, it is customary for opposing counsel to shake hands before leaving the courthouse. While many trial lawyers are highly combative and competitive, a trial is rarely a personal contest between lawyers. While lawyers like to win, they usually go on to fight another day. But some clients have difficulty understanding how lawyers can do battle in the courtroom for days (or sometimes weeks) and then shake hands when it is all over. Of course, a trial is not always the end of the dispute. There can be appeals, reversals and retrials. A trial might be merely one tool to gain leverage in getting the opposing party to do you what you want them to do. Ultimately, a final judicial decision will put an end to the dispute, but it does not necessarily put an end to the enmity between the parties.

Occasionally, litigation can be a “bet the farm” proposition. An attorney representing such a client should find that out before taking on the case. A mediator should also determine the parties’ financial situations as early as possible. Some litigants have nothing to lose in litigation (because they have nothing to start with). Others have everything to lose. Some are looking for vindication. In any case, everyone should keep in mind that the courts have the last word not because they are always right. Rather, they are right because the have the last word. (If anyone can find or remember who first said that, please let me know.)

In a civil society, we all must agree that if we cannot resolve our disputes by ourselves, the courts will do it for us. The alternative is the law of the jungle; survival of the fittest; might, not necessarily right. So, even if the dispute is personal, litigants would do well to learn what attorneys are trained to do:  shake hands and learn to live and fight another day.

Preparation

Mediators frequently complain that parties to mediation do not come sufficiently prepared to reach a settlement. But preparation is a two-way street. Mediators also need to prepare for each session. I prepare by reviewing any information sent to me by the parties, as well as reviewing my mediation training. Some of the things I have learned are recorded in my previous posts. Recently, I have read two excellent articles that help refresh me before each mediation encounter.

The first comes from FINRA’s current newsletter. (You don’t have to be FINRA arbitrator or mediator to subscribe.) The article contains nine tips for a successful mediation. One of those tips is to “be prepared,” but following all of the other tips is the best preparation.

The other article comes from the ABA and discusses 10 things lawyers love and hate about mediators. According to the author, one of the things lawyers love is when mediators prepare beforehand. Seems obvious, but again the other items listed in the article provide fertile ground for preparation by a mediator.

If you are a mediator and have any favorite lists that help you prepare for a mediation session, please leave a comment and let me and my readers know what they are.

An ounce of prevention . . .

Maybe it’s the economy. Or maybe it’s the latest negotiation tactic. Lately, I have conducted several mediations in which one party claims that it will file for bankruptcy if it does not prevail in the pending litigation. Collectibility is frequently an issue in mediation, but the spectre of bankruptcy raises it to a higher level. If a settlement is reached and the party who pays money then files for bankruptcy protection, will the recipient have to pay it back to the trustee to be distributed equitably to all creditors? In one case, the plaintiff alleged its business losses were due to conversion by a business partner — an intentional tort that could not be discharged in bankruptcy.

Of course, many business disputes, especially between partners, can be avoided with carefully worded contracts, partnership agreements or corporate documents. Unfortunately, in the recent cases I have mediated, the contracts and other documents were not carefully worded. In some instances, they were non-existent or, at best, inartfully drafted. Maybe the parties did not feel the need for written agreements, or maybe they were too cheap to pay attorneys to draft them. But I suspect that well-drafted legal documents would have come in handy when it came time to end the relationships or resolve disputes. In the absence of such documentation, the litigation became a he said/she said affair. And the mediation boiled down to “give me what I want” or “accept what I am offering” or else I’ll file for bankruptcy.

A transactional or business attorney’s best marketing tool is to tell a client to “pay me now or pay the litigators later.” In the cases I have seen, parties who scrimped on business planning and documentation have gotten what they paid for. Trouble.

Popping the "information cocoon"

Sometimes, reading a New York Times book review can be better than reading the book. This past weekend, a review of the book The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You prompted me to think about how people can be trapped inside their own “information cocoons.” Google and other internet search engines, as well as Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media, apparently spoon feed us information they think we would like to see, based upon our past searches and selections. Their algorithms personalize search results and rankings according to the searcher’s previous internet history. The book details how and why this is done, as well as exploring the political and social implications of search engine personalization. The book review raises the question of whether governmental regulation to achieve more “serendipitous discovery” is desirable.

This topic is important in understanding how people make decisions and why disputes and conflict arise. Perhaps this is one of the reasons many people perceive an increase polarization and hostility in recent public discourse. When the information you receive on the internet is tailored to complement your previous disposition, you are less able and likely to see the other side’s point of view.

In dispute and conflict resolution, it is sometimes necessary to pop a person’s “information cocoon” to help him or her understand the other side’s position and the risks of continuing the conflict. Mediators often must test a participant’s underlying presumptions by engaging in “reality checks.” Another way to think about this process is to pop the information cocoon. Where are the parties to the dispute getting their information? Are they familiar with the other side’s sources? If not, it may be worth their time to take a look. 

Good litigators must know the other side’s case as well as their own. Good negotiators must be similarly prepared. If internet search engines and social media are making that more difficult, we must be aware of it and be prepared to deal with it. Removing the filters from our search engines would be a good start toward diversifying our information sources. Mediators should be prepared to point out this problem to parties in dispute in order to help pop their information cocoons.

Dare to cross the line

Inspiration comes to me from many sources.  Last weekend, it came to me from a comic strip.  In Baldo (the first comic strip featuring Latino characters and themes), a little girl on a playground dares a bigger girl to cross a line she has drawn in the sand.  The two girls stare at each other as other children gather round.  Finally, the bigger girl crosses the line and the little girl says “Good. Now you’re on my side.”  In the final panel, the two girls hug and smile.  

This inspired me to think of how many times I have seen people in dispute draw lines in the sand that they dare not cross.  Once their positions are fixed, it is difficult to get disputing parties to move.  The cartoonist was able to illustrate how the line might not be a barrier.  Rather, it might be an invitation to explore opportunity. 

Another mediator blogger recently pointed out that 4 year olds can be taught to “do conflict resolution.”  Perhaps we have found a way to make childishness a good thing.  When adults draw lines in the sand, it might be better if they think like 4 year olds or the children in the comic strip. I am going to keep copies of this comic and blog in my mediation binder.  I’ll report to you as soon as I have an opportunity to use them.