Ontario
Ontario Court Imposes Costs for Sham Mediation
February 26, 2014
An Ontario, Canada, court ordered defendant to pay C$60,000 in costs for “sham” mediation after a C$248,000 verdict was rendered against it. Defendant’s counsel had agreed to briefly mediate but wrote that defendant was “not interested in settling” and then stood firm on its modest offer in the mediation. The court did not rely on any other details from or about the mediation, but noted in imposing costs that a C$50,000 gap between the offer and demand required a six-day trial. Ross...
February 26, 2014
An Ontario, Canada, court ordered defendant to pay C$60,000 in costs for “sham” mediation after a C$248,000 verdict was rendered against it. Defendant’s counsel had agreed to briefly mediate but wrote that defendant was “not interested in settling” and then stood firm on its modest offer in the mediation. The court did not rely on any other details from or about the mediation, but noted in imposing costs that a C$50,000 gap between the offer and demand required a six-day trial. Ross...
Durability of Mediated Settlements and More
June 5, 2013
In what I hope readers of this blog will consider a deft segue, I want to shift from the successful judicial mediation that I highlighted last monthto one that didn’t proceed quite so smoothly. Deals negotiated in mediation tend to hold or, at least, that’s been the conventional wisdom. The theory is that because of the consensual nature of the process parties tend to abide by the agreements they’ve struck in mediation. In Ontario we’ve just had a rare high profile example of a situation...
June 5, 2013
In what I hope readers of this blog will consider a deft segue, I want to shift from the successful judicial mediation that I highlighted last monthto one that didn’t proceed quite so smoothly. Deals negotiated in mediation tend to hold or, at least, that’s been the conventional wisdom. The theory is that because of the consensual nature of the process parties tend to abide by the agreements they’ve struck in mediation. In Ontario we’ve just had a rare high profile example of a situation...
“Evaluator” Treated as Mediator for Purposes of Confidentiality in Ontario
April 4, 2013
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....
April 4, 2013
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....
