Arbitration & Mediation

My First Mediation.

By Christopher Annunziata

(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.

Full post as published by CKA Mediation and Arbitration Services Blog on March 19, 2008 (boomark / email).