Faithful readers will recall my posts here and here mentioning the failed mediation relating to the international effort to reach an agreement on the distribution of some $9 Billion in assets remaining from the Nortel insolvency. The Ontario Courts are now struggling with the fallout from that failed mediation. This week saw the release of…

In what I hope readers of this blog will consider a deft segue, I want to shift from the successful judicial mediation that I highlighted last month to one that didn’t proceed quite so smoothly. Deals negotiated in mediation tend to hold or, at least, that’s been the conventional wisdom. The theory is that because…

Finally, after a long parliamentary struggle, the German Mediation Act (Gesetz zur Förderung der Mediation und anderer Verfahren der außergerichtlichen Konfliktbeilegung) was signed into law by the President of the Federal Republic (Bundespräsident) on July 21, 2012. Four days later it was published in the Federal Gazette (Bundesgesetzblatt) BGBl. I, 2012, S. 1577, and came…

Two stories in the Canadian media caught my eye this past month. New Rules for Bank Mediators – The Federal Minister of Finance has indicated that the Canadian federal government will not require banks to mediate their disputes with customers through mediation services offered by the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI). OSBI is…

On December 15, 2011, the Act for the Promotion of Mediation and other Procedures of Extrajudicial Conflict Settlement (Gesetz zur Förderung der Mediation und anderer Verfahren der außergerichtlichen Konfliktbeilegung) was passed in the “lower chamber” of the German parliament (Deutscher Bundestag). The adoption of the Act was based on the recommendation of the Legal Committee…

In his blog post on the 22nd of November, Kenny Aina referred to judges who mediate, commenting that many judges do not possess a mediator’s paradigm. To find out what that is, you will have to read Kenny’s blog. However, like it or not, many judges do mediate, both retired judges and active judges. In…

Years ago, I participated in a Richard Salem led mediation skills acquisition training for retired Judges and I will never forget the words of a just retired Chief Judge contemplating a career in mediation “ Kenny, you mean I will just listen without telling the parties what to do? Impossible! Not me!”. I have seen…