One of the more fun things I do as mediator is judge mediation competitions. There are many around the world, but I primarily go to two of them:
These competitions are not primarily for judging mediators but for judging law and…
The EEO-1 is a form required to be filed by most employers with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission annually. This form reports the demographic breakdown of a company’s workforce, such as race, ethnicity, sex, and job category. This allows the EEOC to see demographic trends in the U.S. workforce and for use in enforcement.
Historically,…
Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the workplace based on several protected classes (like race, sex, and religion). Courts had previously held that the impact to the employee claiming discrimination had to be a “significant employment disadvantage.” In other words, there needed to be an adverse employment action that had…
As I’ve mentioned previously, judge shortages in NJ Superior Courts plus COVID delays have created significant backlogs in cases. In seven NJ counties (Cumberland, Salem, Gloucester, Somerset, Hunterdon, Warren, and Passaic) the judge shortages were so severe that the court was not holding any matrimonial or civil trials. Criminal trials, which have constitutional guarantees of…
On Tuesday, I was honored to speak to a joint meeting of the Reitman Employment Inn of Court and the Garibaldi ADR (alternative dispute resolution) Inn of Court. Inns of Court are statewide groups with members from the bar (lawyers) and bench (judges). The Inns act as a more social way to have conversations between…
Fee shifting is permitted when a statute or contractual provision provides for the loser of a lawsuit to pay the winner’s legal costs. Generally in the United States, we follow the “American Rule” where each party in a lawsuit pays for their own legal costs. There are some public policy issues where the legislature wants…
ChatGPT is all the rage these days. Ask it a question and it gives you an answer. But use it at your own risk, as some New York attorneys recently discovered.
If you are unfamiliar, ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence that is largely free to use. It is still a work in progress. Many people…
In 2013, the NJ Supreme Court ruled in Willingboro Mall, LTD. v. 240/242 Franklin Avenue, L.L.C. that in order for an agreement coming out of mediation to be enforceable by the courts, it must be in writing and signed by all parties. I wrote extensively about that case.
Fast forward ten years and…
Perhaps you’ve heard the term summary judgment and always wondered about it. If so, read on.
What is Summary Judgment?
Generally speaking, trials in civil cases are about determining facts. The finder of fact, whether it is a jury or a judge (in bench trials), picks whose story they believe more. The judge’s job is…
In 2016, Massachusetts lawyer Robert Ambrogi wrote a blog post about a then-new service that attempted to “rank” attorneys based on their court results. The founders were two undergrads from Harvard University and the first covered state was Massachusetts (it appears they no longer offer this service). The question arises whether court outcomes are the…
