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 after the arbitration award has already been made – and sometimes, facts relevant to arbitrator bias will be discovered. On January 26, 2014, I posted about the leading case in which, to quote Mr, Dubrow, “[t]he aggrieved attorney for plaintiffs . . . conjured internet magic.” Mt. Holyoke Homes LP v. Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP, 219 Cal.App.4th 1299 (2013) (arbitrator’s reliance on reference from name partner at defendant’s law firm raised reasonable suspicion of bias, resulting in vacation of arbitration award).
Of course, it may be just as easy to do the same Google search for information publicly available on the internet before commencing arbitration. And therein lies a dilemma, according to Mr. Dubrow. On the one hand, the integrity of the system would be undermined by an arbitrator who withholds information, hoping that the parties will not discover it. On the other hand, there is the possibility of abuse, if the party obtains information of bias before the disclosures are due, decides to retain the arbitrator, and then exploits the information the arbitrator failed to disclose only after receiving an adverse award.
Mediation Confidentiality Privilege.
Hanna B. Raanan, a litigation attorney and mediator, writes about exceptions to the confidentiality protection of mediation in “Things Your Mediator Didn’t Tell You About The Mediation Confidentiality Privilege,” Orange County Lawyer (April 2014), p. 36. She reminds us: 1) discoverable material doesn’t become confidential just because it is used in mediation; 2) execute confidentiality agreements before exchanging information – or else you may not be covered by mediation confidentiality; 3) mediation confidentiality will terminate if there are no communications with the mediator ten days following the mediation – unless you draft around this problem; 4) there are situations in which mediation confidentiality may be weighed against other policies, and found not to be absolute; and (5) if the ADR procedure is not within the definition of “mediation”, then mediation confidentiality may not exist. Her solutions: address the problem of confidentiality before engaging in mediation, and use a savvy mediator aware of the issues.
Ms. Raanan’s admonitions are a useful antidote for the mediator who announces: “Everything said here will be confidential.”
NOTE: My blawg has sidebar categories for Arbitration: Disclosures, and for Mediation: Confidentiality, where you can read more about those topics.
Comments