On Bankruptcy and Mediation
By Donald L. Swanson Every now and then a mediator gets stiffed on fees. It doesn’t happen often. But it happens. And it’s always a shame. Mediators of bankruptcy disputes have an additional payment-related hurdle they must navigate. The hurdle is this: --Advance court approval is required for getting paid from bankruptcy funds. Statutory Requirements... Continue Reading →
By: Donald L. Swanson Mediation has become the go-to process for dealing with large-scale sexual abuse claims in bankruptcy. The latest example is the Chapter 11 case of In re USA Gymnastics, filed on December 5, 2018, at Case No. 18-09108, in the Southern Indiana Bankruptcy Court. Background USA Gymnastics is where Larry Nassar volunteered as... Continue Reading →
By: Donald L. Swanson Consumers often delegate the responsibility for making difficult decisions to others. This is the finding of a recent study by two college professors [Fn. 1]. Avoiding Regret v. Avoiding Disappointment The study distinguishes between a consumer’s desire to avoid “regret” and to avoid “disappointment.” While both regret and disappointment “capture a person’s... Continue Reading →
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nrIPxlFzDi0 By: Donald L Swanson “Satisfaction” of parties to a mediation is difficult to describe, let alone measure. But a recent study published by the Harvard Negotiation Law Review [Fn. 1] examines the “satisfaction” of mediating parties. It identifies two items that have a significant effect on a party's “satisfaction”: (i) timing of referral, and (ii)... Continue Reading →
By: Donald L. Swanson “[W]e are unaware of any authority suggesting that a district court may not rule on a pending motion for summary judgment while the parties may be attempting to settle the matter outside of court.” --Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Myrick v. Discover Bank, Case No. 16-1966, fn. 6 (10/7/2016). The... Continue Reading →
By: Donald L. Swanson One of the crucial rules of mediation is this: all pertinent parties need to be included in the mediation session. That’s because excluded parties can blow-up a mediated deal. Bankruptcy System In bankruptcy, interested parties are everywhere—and they can’t all be included in every mediation. That’s a problem. So, the Bankruptcy Code... Continue Reading →
By: Donald L. Swanson The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida has a mediation policy that’s mandatory. A dispute can be excused from mediation, however, “upon a determination” that it “is not suitable for mediation.” A recent case shows how the Middle District’s policy of mandated mediation offers more than one road to... Continue Reading →
By: Donald L Swanson Historically, bankruptcy courts and bankruptcy professionals have been lagging adopters of mediation. They’ve been slow to utilize mediation for resolving bankruptcy disputes, and they’ve been slow to adopt local rules on mediation. Today, however, 76 (80.85%) of all 94 bankruptcy court districts have a local mediation rule of some type (see this... Continue Reading →
By Donald L. Swanson “The concept of a mediator going outside of the role of just settling a dispute and soliciting money to help settle that dispute is unprecedented in the history of bankruptcy and in the history of mediation as far as I know.” --Judge Steven Rhodes, as quoted in “Detroit Resurrected: To Bankruptcy... Continue Reading →
