An Ontario court considered whether an “evaluator” hired by the parties to assist in resolving a construction dispute should be treated as a mediator. One party argued that the process was not a true mediation, but the court looked at the essence to conclude that the process should be privileged and confidential as long as it involved a dispute in which litigation is contemplated and communications seeking to reach settlement were not intended to be disclosed to the court. Ledcor Constr. Ltd....
One doesn’t ordinarily look to California for exceptions to the broad scope of mediator confidentiality, but inNeighborhood Assistance Corporation v. First One Lending Corporation (C.D. Cal. Jan. 29, 2013) we have one.
The claim alleged violations of the Lanham Act by the defendant corporation, which was alleged to have misrepresented its affiliation with plaintiff and damaged both plaintiff and its clients. An issue arose as to the relationship of an individual defendant, Vescera, to the corporate...
