Oct. 17, 2013
Robert S. Mann
See more on Robert S. MannADR Services Inc., American Arbitration Association Los Angeles Specialties: real estate, construction, commercial, homeowner association, intellectual property, wrongful death and personal injury, employment, insurance, legal
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"The emotions tend to run very high because someone's home is involved. Whenever a home is involved, you get the nest syndrome," Mann said. "Usually it's the biggest investment that a private person makes in a lifetime. When something goes wrong, people get upset."
Many of such cases involve claims of intentional concealment.
"They're very challenging," Mann said of those claims, "but I resolve just about all of them."
Parties have come to expect more from their mediators, and Mann thinks mediators themselves may be partially to blame.
In the past, parties and their lawyers generally had little expectation of involvement with mediators prior to or following formal mediation, but that's no longer the case, Mann said.
"Now, people expect the mediator to contact them prior to the mediation and expect a substantial follow-up effort if the case isn't settled at the sit-down session. ... We so often at the end of the mediation that doesn't resolve itself say, 'I'm going to make some calls,'" Mann said. "That gets said so often that people start to expect it."
- Andrew McIntyre
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