Recent Articles

Don't Ignore the Impact of Judicial Discretion on the Outcome and Cost of Litigation

Ron White
February 24, 2012 19:17

  Discretion is the better part of valor, a phrase that can be traced to a 15th Century English writer named Caxton, became part of the English vernacular after the publication of William Shakespeare’s ‘King Henry the Fourth’ in the 16th Century. The phrase came into the...

Calculating Settlement Value Like a Super Bowl Champion

Ron White
January 25, 2012 22:11

  The New York Giants are playing the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, again. What would happen if the Patriots prepared for the game by focusing exclusively on their strengths and the Giants’ weaknesses while ignoring their own weaknesses and the Giants’ strengths?...

Deja Brew: A Mediator Looks Back at the Hot Coffee Case or How to Keep Your Dispute from Spilling into Court

Ron White
January 13, 2012 18:09

  Even after twenty years, the so-called “McDonald’s coffee case” or “hot coffee case” is still the poster child of tort reform advocates and the rally cry of consumer attorneys. The former decry a legal system which permits such “frivolous” lawsuits...

Lessons About Enforcing Settlements From the School of Hard Knocks

Ron White
January 10, 2012 00:20

  As a mediator, I am in the business of getting lawsuits settled, so I take special note of court opinions where a party tries to get out of a settlement by alleging such things as fraud, economic duress, and most recently in Starpoint Properties, LLC v. Namvar, a California Court of Appeal...

Three Yards and a Cloud of Dust: More X's and O's from the Competitive World of Litigation

Ron White
November 18, 2011 23:16

  I like to read and report on appellate court cases that illustrate the benefits of self-determination in the mediation process as opposed to court-imposed adjudication in the civil trial process. It may involve a little "Monday morning quarterbacking,"  but I don't...

Conflict Resolution: A Lesson from Diogenes and Alexander the Great

Ron White
November 03, 2011 22:50

  Conflict is inevitable in our adversary system of justice. The term “adversary system” is defined as “the jurisprudential network of laws, rules, and procedures characterized by opposing parties who contend against each other for a result favorable to...

Written Notice Provisions: A Rose By Any Other Name Would Smell So Sweet (To Owners)

Ron White
October 20, 2011 19:09

  My high school English teacher, Mrs. Clegg, did her best to instill in me a love for Shakespeare. She taught me to look for metaphors and similes in the great bard’s work, and to apply them to my life. Take Juliet’s famous line:”That which we call a rose by any other name...

RON'S TOP TEN LIST: Things Your Mediator Wishes You Would Do So He Can Help You Settle Your Lawsuit

Ron White
October 05, 2011 23:30

    NUMBER ONE: Exchange with your opponent salient information about the case well in advance of the mediation. If you represent the plaintiff you may want to ask defense counsel what additional information, if any, is necessary for the defense to be fully prepared for the mediation. If...

A Judge's Grateful And Funny Response To A Settlement

Ron White
September 20, 2011 17:05

  Judges are people too. Some of them even have a sense of humor. Years ago Justice Sills of the California Court of Appeal began his opinion in a mechanic’s lien case I was handling with these words: “This case presents a real doozy of a puzzle in mechanic’s lien law.”...

Mediation:The Antidote to the Uncertainty of Trial

Ron White
September 16, 2011 18:04

  Mediation is the antidote to the uncertainty of trial and most often leads to the timely, cost-effective resolution of disputes. In mediation, the people with “skin in the game,” the litigants, not jurors, judges, or appellate court justices, decide how and when the conflict will...