Readers of this blog know that the author has a warm place in his heart for the cottage industry of Monday-Morning Quarterback-ing mediated settlement agreements.  These are the motions or newly initiated suits contesting whether one party to a mediation is actually bound by the terms of an agreement they made (or perhaps did not make) in mediation.

The grandpappy of them all was a New Jersey dispute in which the refusal by one party to honor an alleged mediated agreement was answered by a motion by the other party — accompanied by a certification of the mediator!!  The trial court’s hearings, the Appellate Division’s consternation, the questions of breach of mediator confidentiality, the effectiveness of party waiver of mediator privilege — all these concerns and more stretched the litigation out (the mediation was conducted on November 6, 2007).  I don’t remember reading that the attorneys refused their fees during the nearly 6 additional years of subsequent litigation.  The case was described in a prior blog post, located here.

Well, on August 15, 2013, the New Jersey Supreme Court turned off the ventilator, not only on this suit but on the entire game.  In a unanimous opinion, the court affirmed the trial court and the Appellate Division’s holding that the agreement reached at mediation was in fact binding and enforceable.

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