Mediators at Work: Breach of Warranty
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Audio/Visual
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Category
Abstract
Mediators at Work: Breach of Warranty? displays the mediation of a typical commercial legal dispute. The case involves a breach-of-warranty suit between two companies over damage that the defendant supplier allegedly caused to the plaintiff company’s fleet of trucks by selling it defective antifreeze. The dispute is complicated by the fact that the plaintiff has filed a bad-faith settlement practice claim against the defendant’s insurance carrier, as well as by the interests and emotions of the principals of the two family-owned companies.
Dwight Golann and Marjorie Corman Aaron produced the film to highlight the various obstacles facing neutrals in complicated, multi-issue cases. The participants, who are practicing litigators, did not have access to each other’s confidential instructions. They were not given a script, but rather were instructed simply to negotiate as they would in an actual case. PON filmed four different iterations of the case and selected the best for this videotape. The result is some of the most realistic video of legal mediation yet filmed. In order to show as much as possible of the mediation process, the videotape does not include commentary; it contains 55 minutes of uninterrupted mediation. The mediator employs a broad and facilitative approach. In doing so, however, he must confront the narrowly evaluative strategies of the two lawyers, as well as the positional bargaining and angry emotions of the principals.
Dwight Golann is the Professor of Law at Suffolk University in Boston. His areas of academic interest are dispute resolution and consumer financial services. Golann is the author of several publications in alternative dispute resolution, including the book Mediating Legal Disputes, which was named co-winner of a national prize awarded to the best book published in the field of alternative dispute resolution.
Formerly the Executive Director of the Program on Negotiation, Marjorie Corman Aaron is a Visiting Assistant Professor and Executive Director of the Center for Practice in Negotiation and Problem Solving at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. She teaches courses in alternative dispute resolution, mediation and negotiation.
Dwight Golann and Marjorie Corman Aaron produced the film to highlight the various obstacles facing neutrals in complicated, multi-issue cases. The participants, who are practicing litigators, did not have access to each other’s confidential instructions. They were not given a script, but rather were instructed simply to negotiate as they would in an actual case. PON filmed four different iterations of the case and selected the best for this videotape. The result is some of the most realistic video of legal mediation yet filmed. In order to show as much as possible of the mediation process, the videotape does not include commentary; it contains 55 minutes of uninterrupted mediation. The mediator employs a broad and facilitative approach. In doing so, however, he must confront the narrowly evaluative strategies of the two lawyers, as well as the positional bargaining and angry emotions of the principals.
Dwight Golann is the Professor of Law at Suffolk University in Boston. His areas of academic interest are dispute resolution and consumer financial services. Golann is the author of several publications in alternative dispute resolution, including the book Mediating Legal Disputes, which was named co-winner of a national prize awarded to the best book published in the field of alternative dispute resolution.
Formerly the Executive Director of the Program on Negotiation, Marjorie Corman Aaron is a Visiting Assistant Professor and Executive Director of the Center for Practice in Negotiation and Problem Solving at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. She teaches courses in alternative dispute resolution, mediation and negotiation.
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