Business Conflict Blog

Prof. Joseph Allegretti wrote an interesting article ten years ago titled A Christian Perspective on Alternative Dispute Resolution, 28 Fordham Urb. L.J. 997 (2001).  In it he tells the tale of St. Francis of Assisi’s mediating a conflict between the residents of a town and a ravenous wolf that was terrorizing them, “devouring both animals and human beings.”

The story contains an interesting reminder of the Christian tradition of self-interested forgiveness, and also of the principle (espoused by all mediator trainers) that everybody has an underlying interest that informs their behavior — even (or especially) wolves.  

And it describes an unorthodox method of mediation in which the neutral starts off by telling each party that they’re schmucks. Read more »

Tags: Mediation

In the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, a judge held a hearing upon Order to Show Cause why Wells Fargo, which had been required to participate in a mediation, should not be sanctioned for the conduct of its counsel in that mediation.  The mediator testified, Wells Fargo’s counsel testified, and at least one other counsel for a participating party testified — all concerning Wells Fargo’s conduct during the mediation.  The court held that there had been a failure to mediate, held Wells Fargo in contempt of the mediation order, and sanctioned them. Read more »

Tags: Courts, Mediation

Prima Paint teaches that the arbitration agreement nestled in a commercial contract has a legal validity of its own, and that once a court determines that the “nestled” agreement to arbitrate is enforceable, then the arbitrator and not the court shall determine the enforceability of the rest of the contract.

The interesting thing about the arbitration agreement in Rent-a-Car, West v. Jackson is that there wasn’t anything for the arbitration agreement to nestle into.  The document evidenced only an agreement to arbitrate.  Other terms of any commercial agreement between Jackson and his employer were set forth elsewhere.  This was just a “Mutual Agreement to Arbitrate Claims.” 

So when Jackson was prompted to sue his employer for racial discrimination, the federal district court didn’t have an arbitration agreement to sever from the rest of the contract.  It had only the agreement to arbitrate itself, in all its lonely glory.

Which Jackson said was unconscionable because it was thrust upon him and unfairly limited his ability to vindicate his statutory rights.

And which provided that questions of unconscionability were to be decided by (guess who?) the arbitrator, not the court.  Take that, Prima Paint.

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Tags: Arbitration, Employment

I had a good chuckle at an article that appears in the current issue of Dispute Resolution International, the journal of the Dispute Resolution Section of the International Bar Association.  Daniele Cutolo and Mark Alexander Shalaby discuss a case brought in Italy to test whether an Italian statute requiring mediation prior to certain consumer court proceedings violates Article 6 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, ensuring access to the courts.  The lower court found that it did.

Ya gotta smile.

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Tags: Human Rights, Mediation, Public Policy