Recently I read an article about two lawyers assaulting each other during a deposition being conducted in the courthouse. The article, dated April 30, 2015 and printed in NorthJersey.com explains:

Two attorneys were arrested and charged with simple assault on Wednesday after they got into a heated dispute that turned into a fist fight at the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack, authorities and witnesses said.

Costantino Fragale, 42, and Jeffrey Mandel, 43, were in a deposition in a room on the fourth floor about 1 p.m. when the dispute erupted, said Anthony Cureton, spokesman for the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department, which is in charge of security at the courthouse.

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In a blog post posted on April 29, 2015, Katie Shonk with the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School discussed “Dealing with Difficult People? First Look in the Mirror.”

Her thesis is that when dealing with “…those who refuse to give you what you want in negotiation for no clear reason other than sheer stubbornness” (Id.), do not dismiss them as simply being stubborn, irrational, and difficult. Rather, stop and ask questions to understand or ascertain what is behind their supposed “sheer stubbornness”. Listen to their concerns very closely and with an open mind. Ms. Shonk offers three guidelines to help view this supposed sheer stubborn person in a constructive light:

The first, is as stated: LISTEN! Ask the other party what is giving her pause. Rather than assuming the reason or rationale for the “sheer stubbornness’, ask and seek out the “new information”. As Ms. Shonk aptly states: “To avoid dealing with difficult people, don’t give them a reason to be difficult in the first place.” (Id.)

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