The recent unfolding of events involving Chris Dorner, while extremely sad and tragic in so many ways, also highlight an important part of the resolution process: giving a person the forum to be heard and for justice and fairness to be given. It is impossible for any trier of fact or arbiter to make everyone happy- in fact the process compels there be a winner and a loser. Dorner in his "manifesto" makes clear that he was angered at not being "heard" or listened to when he ma

Fear drives many actions and inactions in a mediation. For example, sometimes defendants request an opening demand from plaintiff before going into mediation. The plaintiff's fear is that upon giving the demand, the defendant will decide to forego mediation. That is 1 possibility, but another one, in fact the one I more commonly see, is that an advance demand may help the defense prepare their client or carrier for obtaining sufficient authority. Not surprisingly, plaintiff a