Happy Friday!
Thanks to Stu Rees of Stu’s Views for permission to share this cartoon. You can subscribe to get your own cartoons from Stu by visiting his chuckle-inducing site.
Now if I only had a dollar for every time a mediation party has told me that they’d wished their attorney had permitted them to talk to the other side…
God, how true, Tammy!
I heard David Hoffman, a well known collaborative attorney/mediator from Boston tell of a case where a woman had specifically told of her nut allergy at a fancy hotel restaurant and was assured that her food contained no nuts. The food DID contain ground nuts, which led to anaphylactic shock, which she survived.
The hotel never apologized and in fact ignored her, which is why she sued.
Stuart Baker <a href="http://www.consciouscooperation.com” target=”_blank”>www.consciouscooperation.com
Oh, good grief, Stuart, what an awful story. I've heard some similar ones from David H. I've had mediation clients — many, actually — who've told me their attorney specifically instructed them not to apologize, as an apology could be used against them in court. Of course I understand the attorney's job is to protect their client's legal interests, but there are places it's gone too far.
In NH, as well as other places around the US, we're actually legislating apology. Doctors here can now apologize for medical errors. I don't know whether to be relieved that the power of apology's being recognized, or deeply saddened that we've gotten to the place of having to legislate it!