Quick Monday Question – Suit or Sport Coat?

As I was dressing for a mediation this morning, I mulled over whether to put on the suit or what’s known as the Atlanta Uniform – tan/khaki slacks, shirt/tie and blue blazer. I wondered whether one presents a different image than the other and whether that matters.

So, I invite comment from my fellow mediators and readers who may be consumers of mediation services: Does the dress/style of the mediator matter? Do you prefer the smart slacks/sport coat/tie combo or the good, old-fashioned suit and tie?

Return of the Friday Funny

I have a few small Funnies today. Mostly legal related (barely):

He Couldn’t Afford Better Beer then Natural Light?

The 17 year old great-grandson of Gussie Busch – founder of the Anheuser-Busch beer empire – was busted with several of his buddies for underage drinking. Their beer of choice? The rot-gut Natural Light. Really? He couldn’t get anything better than that? I think I used a keg of that to water my lawn last year because of drought restrictions.

If they don’t cash it, I hope they recycle it.

Yahoo news reports that an upstate New York man tried to settle his $2,509.66 water bill with a check written on floral print, two-ply toilet paper Wednesday. Binghamton city officials refused to accept the check. The man says he is appealing the judgment against him in small claims court. He may have a point. Just about the ONLY thing I recall from studying Commercial Paper/Negotiable instruments for the bar is that a check can be written on any paper, as long as it meets certain minimum requirements, like a check number, date, amount, signature, and account and routing numbers. Those ridiculous novelty checks they hand to Jerry Lewis every Labor Day can be cashed. Why not TP?

He definitely gets Style Points for his confession.

A London based website reports that a teenage boy walked into a local courthouse and announced that he had just stabbed a gang rival who was due to appear before the bench. CCTV apparently shows him walking into the court shortly before his shocking announcement.

The real question is who was more foolish? The 16 year old boy for confessing or the various adults, bailiffs, lawyers and court officers for allowing the boy to bolt from the courtroom, leave the building and get away on a bicycle?

The Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution Needs Your Help.

Yesterday, I received an email from Shinji Morokuma, the Director of the Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution. It appears that the future of the GODR is in jeopardy. Last year, the Georgia General Assembly cut their budget by 63% - $250,000. This year, the House Appropriations Committee of the Georgia General Assembly has recommended that this $250,000 budget cut not be restored for the next fiscal year. The office is currently running only thanks to a one-time grant from the Georgia Bar Foundation. Without this funding, the office may be forced to close.

The GODR is an important part of the judicial system. They oversee more than 2,200 GODR-registered and regulated mediators, arbitrators and case evaluators. In fiscal year 2008, these neutrals are projected to help resolve 19,000 civil cases – at a direct cost to the State of approximately $400,000 . If those same 19,000 cases were not resolved using alternative dispute resolution methods, they would fill the court calendars of the equivalent of sixteen (16) Superior Court judges – at direct cost to the state (for the judges, clerks, assistants, staff, etc.) of over $6 million.

If you live in Georgia, please e-mail these key legislators and ask them to restore full funding for the ODR office for Fiscal Year 2009:

Senate Appropriations Judiciary Subcommittee Members:
Senator Preston Smith (R-Rome) – preston.smith@senate.ga.gov
Senator Michael Meyer von Bremen (D-Albany) – michael.meyer@senate.ga.gov
Senator Bill Cowsert (R-Athens) – Bill.cowsert@senate.ga.gov
Senator Seth Harp (R-Midland) – sethharp@aol.com
Senator Regina Thomas (D-Savannah) – regina.thomas@senate.ga.gov

Senate Appropriations Conference Committee Members:
Senator Jack Hill (R-Reidsville) – jack.hill@senate.ga.gov
Senator Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) – eric.johnson@senate.ga.gov
Senator Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) – tommie@tommiewilliams.com

House Appropriations Conference Committee Members:
Representative Ben Harbin (R-Evans) – ben.harbin@house.ga.gov
Representative Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island) – jerry.keen@house.ga.gov
Representative Mark Burkhalter (R-Johns Creek) – mark.burkhalter@house.ga.gov

House Appropriations Public Safety Subcommittee
Representative Chuck Martin (R-Alpharetta) – chuck.martin@house.ga.gov

If you so desire, the GODR has drafted a form letter for you to use to urge these lawmakers to restore funding. I will keep a copy of it here.

If you have any questions about this issue, please do not hesitate to call or email me.

(Mediation) Thought for the Day

The greatest challenge to any thinker mediator is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
- Bertrand Russell

My First Mediation.

(That makes it sound like a cheesy children’s toy.) Anyway Nancy Hudgins got this ball rolling, and Diane Levin joined in.

I’d join the fray, but frankly, put a gun to my head and I couldn’t tell you one thing about it. I’ve never been one to tell a lot of war stories. I have a few staples, and if it seems relevant to the conversation, I’ll throw one in, like the time I had a Batson challenge raised against me in a jury trial, was forced to put the stricken jurors BACK on the jury and still won a defense verdict, or the “interview story.” Those stories seemed to have an impact on me and I know they get a good reaction from my audience when I tell them. So, they stay in my repertoire.

I guess my first mediation didn’t make an impact on me, as I can’t recall one scrap of information about it. I have the date, time and location in a spreadsheet (it’s helpful for tax purposes – mileage, you know), and I also have “settled” written down in one column. The details are fuzzy. And calling my memory of it fuzzy is being generous. I remember small things about some of my mediations. Like the one about the restoration of a 70’s muscle car with 500 hp (for an 18 year old). But full details? Not really.

This may partly have to do with all the brow beating you get in training about confidentiality. I think I fear(ed?) that even if I changed the names to protect the guilty innocent, I might tell the story in front of the wrong person or it might be read on here by the wrong person. Maybe as time goes on, and I have more interesting cases, I might develop a new repertoire of mediation war stories. Until then, I’ll just have to sit back and enjoy everyone else’s.

Is a Mediator’s Notebook/Handbook useful?

I have recently been toying with the idea of creating a Mediator Handbook/Notebook. I think the idea comes somewhat from my days as a litigator and the desire to distill mountains of information into readily available, bite-sized chunks; and somewhat from Geoff Sharp , who mentioned it to me in an email a few months ago.

I have two main concerns with the idea:

1) What to include?
and
b) Will having (and referring to) a three ring binder of materials during a mediation undermine my effectiveness?

The more I think about it, the more the latter becomes the more troublesome question for me.

More after the jump

Is There a Disparity Between Training Methods and Client Needs? – Post Mediation Training Observations.

I’ve finally recovered from my marathon 42-hour Domestic Relations Mediation Training last week. My teacher did an excellent job of trying to make the class interesting from 8:30 am to 6 pm every day, but even she would acknowledge that 6-8 hours of lecture is a lot for the human mind to bear.

I think it was good to have waited almost a year between the general mediation training and the domestic relations training because several things struck me as interesting. Primarily, the disparity between current mediation training methods and the mediation skills and services our clients say they want.

Mediation Training All Week

I will be receiving additional mediation training all this week. I will not be able to live blog, like some other colleagues, so you will have to solider on without me this week.