Mediation Case Law Teaching Videos
Subject Area
Enforcement
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Document Type
Video
Publication Date
11-27-2022
Recommended Citation
Coben, James, "Stories Mediation Parties Tell, Part 3 (“Mediation Rashomon”: What a Plaintiff Claims to Have Heard; What a Mediator Claims to Have Said)" (2022). Mediation Case Law Teaching Videos. 50.
https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/dri_mclvideo/50
Comments
Playtime: 2:24 minutes
Rodriguez v Hiday & Ricke P. A, No. 14–CV–61509, 2015 WL 1470513 *4-5 (S.D. Fla. Mar. 31, 2015) (concluding there was no mediator coercion where the plaintiff mistook the mediator’s communication of defense counsel’s posturing to be the mediator’s own words).
EXAMPLE 1
What the Plaintiff Claims to Have Heard
I “tried to leave the mediation to go to work on several occasions, but [the mediator] kept telling [me] that an agreement had to be reached that day.”
What the Mediator Claims to Have Said
I “simply told Plaintiff that they were ‘making progress,’ and ‘[i]sn’t it in your best interest to see if we can get this case resolved?’”…I “repeatedly said to [Plaintiff], if you want to terminate [the mediation], we’ll terminate it. [Plaintiff] said no, I want to stay to see if we can get it done.”
EXAMPLE 2
What the Plaintiff Claims to Have Heard
The mediator told me “that if [I] did not accept Defendants’ settlement offer, then “the Judge is going to become very angry and is not going to be in any position to be giving you any kind of a discount [off the Final Judgment].”
What the Mediator Claims to Have Said
The mediator “denied saying anything to that effect.”
EXAMPLE 3
What the Plaintiff Claims to Have Heard, Take 3
The mediator told me “that the defendant’s initial global settlement offer of $6,000 was ‘fair,’ and that if I did not accept it, then I would be responsible for the then-total amount due under Defendants’ Final Judgment, which was purportedly $10,146.60 plus fees and costs.”
What the Mediator Claims to Have Said, Take 3
I communicated “defense counsel’s posturing that Plaintiff essentially ‘had two choices’—either accept the offer, or be on the hook for the full amount of the Final Judgment, which defense counsel claimed was $10,146.60 plus fees and costs.”