Divorce Law Journal

B.F. v. T.D., 194 S.W.3d 310 (Ky., 2006)

Issue and Holding:
Whether one who is not a parent but who has nevertheless participated substantially in the support and rearing of a child for a significant period of time has standing to claim a right of custody or visitation upon discontinuance of the cohabitational relationship with the parent. The Court held no, such person has no standing.

Facts:
B.F. and T.D. were in a cohabitational, same-sex, relationship for about eight years. They adopted a daughter, but only T.D. was the adoptive parent due to the parties’ uncertainty of the law with respect to same-sex couples jointly adopting a child. The child lived with the couple for six years, after which the couple discontinued their relationship.
B.F. asserted that she was a de facto custodian of the child; however, the trial court found that B.F. did not meet the requirements of Kentucky law for de facto custodian status. The Court of Appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court granted discretionary review.

Analysis:
KRS 403.420 limits standing to claim a right of custody to 1) a parent, 2) a de facto custodian, and 3) a person other than a parent only if the child is not in the physical custody of one of the parents. Since B.F. is not a parent and the child remained in the custody of her mother, T.D., at the time the custody proceeding began, B.F.’s only option was to claim de facto custodian status.
KRS 403.270 defines de facto custodian as someone who has been shown by clear and convincing evidence to have been the primary caregiver for and financial supporter of a child. B.F. was the primary financial supporter of the child. However, T.D. was the child’s primary caregiver.
The Court held that the trial court’s ruling that B.F. was not the primary caregiver was not clearly erroneous. Testimony by B.F. confirmed that T.D. was the primary caregiver. As a result, B.F. did not meet her burden of proof. Therefore, the Court affirmed the decision below.

V.S. v. Com., Cabinet for Health and Family Services, 194 S.W.3d 331 (Ky.App., 2006)

Issue and Holding:
Whether the Cabinet for Health and Family Services failed to offer sufficient evidence to support a finding of medical and educational neglect. The Court found that the Cabinet failed to present sufficient evidence.

Facts:
The Cabinet filed a petition to involuntarily terminate V.S.’s parental rights to three children. V.S. did not contest the allegations in the trial court and did not appear for court proceedings. In May 2005 the family court conducted a hearing on the termination petition. At the hearing, one witness, a social worker, was called. The social worker testified that the Cabinet took custody of the children due to medical and educational neglect. The medical neglect allegations centered on the claims that 1) one child was allowed to place a catheter in another child, who had spina bifida, and 2) that the special needs child had missed doctor’s appointments. The educational neglect allegations centered on 1) V.S. stating that she could not get up early enough to take the children to school, 2) one child was reading far below the expected ability for his age, and 3) the social worker’s statement that V.S. could not provide a suitable home.
The family court found that the children were abused and neglected and terminated the mother’s rights. V.S. appealed.

Analysis:
On appeal, the Court interpreted V.S.’s brief as arguing that the Cabinet did not provide sufficient evidence to support the family court’s decision to terminate her rights. The Court applied the clearly erroneous standard on review.
The Court found that there was no concrete evidentiary support for the Cabinet’s allegations. The Court found that the social worker’s testimony at the hearing was nothing more than conclusory responses to leading questions. No evidence was presented as to specific harm that resulted from the allegations of neglect. As such, the Court vacated the termination orders of the family court and remanded the case for further proceedings.

Turkey Day in Turkey

To be in a land where you do not look like the other people and in a place where there is enormous hostility to the U.S.A. was an eye-opening and humbling experience. Experiencing the Muslim culture was a first. Even reading the news from a different perspective was mind-boggling. The World Economic Forum was meeting in Istanbul while we were there, and one of the main reported topics was Turkey’s proposed membership in the European Union. I had long thought the only issue was if and when Turkey would get its act together and be deemed fit to join by the existing members. So, I was very surprised to learn from the Turk perspective one big issue is what does it stand to gain by joining and giving the EU a border with Iran, Iraq, and Syria, some of the most strategic and volatile countries in the world. While we assume we have a free press, the nuances of the debate are very much colored by who is doing the reporting.

For several years my daughter expressed how funny it would be to go to Turkey for Thanksgiving. It is the sort of oddball humor my mother would have loved. One of the things mom liked best about where she lived is that camels lived down the street. Henry Wallace also kept yak, bison, peacocks, goats and all sorts of birds at his menagerie, Henry’s Ark. To live down the lane from those camels was the icing on the cake. It didn’t seem fitting to run off to Turkey the first few years after she died, though. I had to write the family cookbook and entrust my grandmother’s stuffing recipe to my nephew. We had to give dad some time to survive a few holidays without mom, before we could take off like larks.

So, 2006 was to be the year. Getting sick right before the trip made it a close call. My good doctors loaded me up with every precaution and reminded me I would be just a phone call away! At the time I didn’t want that reminder of how small the world has become, but it is very true. Email even streamed to my PDA. We were able to resist reading the email, turned the phone off, and pretended we did not have access to internet. Thus, for a few glorious days we soaked up the culture, ate absolutely fabulous food (Turkish olive oil is sublime!) did our Christmas shopping, took in a hammam, saw the Blue Mosque, St. Sophia, Topapki Palace, the Covered Bazaar and Spice Market, and enjoyed the views of the Bosphorous.

As a tourist is was fairly easy to ignore the tension between our countries and our cultures. I hope it is not as easy to forget.

www.LouisvilleDivorce.com News- This is an advertisement

www.LouisvilleDivorce.com News-This is an advertisement
Our “about” page was initially submitted to the Bar and resubmitted when modified. Because this post contains content similar to what may be found on a law firm website, we are submitting it to the Bar Association under the advertising rules. We will rarely use this blog to "advertise", but there has been so much happening at Diana L. Skaggs + Associates that I would really like to use this venue to share it with you. If you’re not interested, move on to the next post and be assured you will not see another like this for a long time.

MICHELLE EISENMENGER MAPES

With sweaty palms, weak knees, a flip-flopping stomach, and fear of fainting, Michelle presented her first CLE seminar October 26, 2006 at the LBA: “Personal Goodwill-Is Whether It Is Divisible Marital Property Settled in Kentucky?" Of course such a topic drew the most experienced, sophisticated practitioners to attend, making the apprehension worse. As the seminar got rolling, however, PowerPoint and all, Michelle reported that it was great fun and the audience was kind in its comments to her. Just as the ABA Family Law Trial Practice Institute ordeal about which Michelle posted here bolstered her skills and confidence, this inaugural seminar did the same. Returning to the office after the seminar, she got busy making plans to become more active in the Louisville Bar Association Family Law Section and ultimately chair that section and to join and become active in the Kentucky Academy of Trial Attorneys new Domestic Law Section. Michelle will receive the www.LouisvilleDivorce.com 2006 award for “Most Courageous.” Bravo for facing your fears and conquering them!
SANDRA G. RAGLAND

Jefferson Circuit Court, Family Division Judge Paula Sherlock was effusive in her praise of Sandy to the Family Court Forum audience last month. Judge Sherlock is running a weekly pilot project each Tuesday evening for her pro se docket, so litigants who cannot afford attorneys can come to court without missing work. Sandy has faithfully appeared every Tuesday to mediate these cases, with most litigants leaving the courtroom with a signed agreement and a court order in place.
Sandy has also tirelessly worked with the Kentucky Family Law Network, Inc., the Louisville area interdisciplinary collaborative family law group. Whether the meetings are at 7:30 a.m. or 6:00 p.m., Sandy is always present, and serves on the organizations’ executive committee. Most of her work is very much behind the scenes, so few beyond the executive committee know of her tireless work promoting this organization and the collaborative process in which she passionately believes.
For these efforts, Sandy will receive the www.LouisvilleDivorce.com “2006 Volunteer of the Year Award.”
For those of you who do not know, Sandra Ragland was trial counsel for the husband, where the wife was held to be equitably estopped from denying her husband's paternity of the child whom DNA testing revealed was not biologically related. That Court of Appeals case, Hinshaw Hinshaw , is marked “to be published” but is not yet final as a Motion for Discretionary Review in the Kentucky Supreme Court is pending. She was also wrote the appellate brief for Downing v. Downing, 45 S.W.2d 449 (Ky.App. 2001) which established the “three pony rule” for child support in large income cases.

INTRODUCING: SARAH J. NIELSEN

Sarah is our newest associate and we are delighted to have her. A 2002 cum laude graduate of St. Louis University School of Law, Sarah earned her undergraduate degree, cum laude, from University of Notre Dame. She comes to us from the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy. While in law school, she was an intern and court-appointed special advocate with CASA in St. Louis and a court advocate for the Center for Women and Families in Louisville.

INTRODUCING: EMILY A. HINDERLITER

A cum laude Vanderbilt grad, Emily is a law student at The Ohio State University Morris College of Law working on her JD with certificate in dispute resolution. She is a visiting student during the 2006-2007 school year at Louis D. Brandeis School of Law in Louisville and we are pleased to have her as an intern at Diana L. Skaggs + Associates. She was actually hired to be a file clerk and runner, but she is so talented that we want her to intern. She also is working with Tony Belak at the International Center for Dispute Resolution at Sullivan University. Previously she served as research assistant for Professor Cole, co-author of Mediation: Law, Policy and Practice (2d Ed. 1994) updating and organizing this treatise. Last year she also taught weekly lessons using dispute resolution techniques to a 5th grade class as a volunteer project.

www.LouisvilleDivorce.com has a complete makeover
The lawfirm website of Diana L. Skaggs + Associates was completely revamped this year. Check it out!

DIANA L. SKAGGS

2006 has been a busy year for yours truly as well. This blog was born. I received a very nice award (Family Law Practitioner of the Year) at the Louisville Bar Association, presented by Olu Stevens. I was honored and humbled by Alan T. Slyn asking me to substitute for him in presenting with retired judge Richard A. Revell the 15th Annual Domestic Relations Update. Having done it once, Alan then tapped me to take it over for good, so Judge Revell and I will again be presenting it on February 23, 2007. As you may know, Richard A. Revell and Alan T. Slyn wrote Kentucky Divorce, the practice system library published by Thompson.West and updated it annually for more than 20 years. Surprise! Alan has bequeathed that honor to me, as well, and I look forward to doing the 2007 revisions with Judge Revell. I lectured to the annual Kentucky Chapter of the AAML and LBA on “appreciated nonmarital assets-active or passive” and I filmed a “hot tip” for the national AAML to be part of an AAML video seminar next year. The topic? Blogs! As president-elect of the Kentucky Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, I will become president in January 2007 for a two year term. We have tons of great ideas in the works, and I am thrilled to try to make them happen.

In the meantime, back to work.

National Family Law Symposium

The National Center for Family Law will be presenting the First National Family Law Symposium Sunday, September 16 – Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at the University of Richmond School of Law. It is designed for family law practitioners, judges, professors and mental health professionals interested in the law and social policies impacting families and children.
Presenters will include: Marc J. Ackerman, Ph.D, Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, Milwaukee, WI
Robert E. Emery, Ph.D, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Children, Families, and the Law, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Catherine “Kit” Holland Peterson, AAML fellow, Norman, OK
Elizabeth E> Scott, Harold R. Medina Professor of Law, Columbia Law School, New York, NY
Lynn D. Wardle, Bruce C. Hafen Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
The cost is $425 before April 16, 2005 or $495 regular admission.
Registration can be made at http://www.vacle.org

AAML Annual Meeting CLE and Blogging About Seminars

The AAML annual meeting in Chicago was filled with the best yet CLE. I often return from these meetings feeling the material is indispensable; this year was over-the-top fabulous. I am not unaware of the furor in some circles about blogging the content of paid seminars over the internet. Of more concern to me is the possibility that blogging could chill the candid nature of the discourse. From the outset we have decided to post a synopsis of seminar content only with the approval of the speaker.
I did not even ask two of the fine presenters for permission to post about their remarks because it was obvious I would not have time to do their material justice and we may try to land a couple of them in Louisville for our seminar in April. I did ask Robert H. Mnookin, Williston Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Director Harvard Negotiation Research Project, Chair, Steering Committee, Program on Negotiation, for permission to post about his talk, “Negotiation Techniques by the Expert”, Negotiating in the Shadow of the Law. A first for me, he asked me to email a draft to him and he said he'd email me back if OK. Since he is "in residence" in California for a year and is limited in his opportunity to travel, I will email him a draft and hope he OKs it. No point stepping on toes. It is exactly the negotiation and mediation content that we seem to desperately need in these parts.
P.S. If you think you missed a week of posts after this seminar was over on November 10, you are correct. Sick. Out for an entire week. Now swamped. Clients come first and there is catching up to do. In the spirit of this thankful season, though, doing the best you can is almost always good enough, and now I know to add health to the long list of things for which I am thankful.

Gay Men, Lesbians and the Kids They are Making and Raising, Sort of Together

Gay Donor or Gay Dad? by John Bowe is The New York Times Magazine November 19, 2006 cover story under the headline An Extended Nuclear Family? . "Gay men and lesbians are having babies - and redefining fatherhood, commitment and what a family can be." The entire article is online and worth a read.

Strengthening Marriage

A Case for Strengthening Marriage, By Hon. Leah Ward Sears, Chief Justice, Georgia Supreme Court The Washington Post, Monday, October 30, 2006; Page A17 is set out below in its entirety. In the coming weeks and months we will report on initiatives, some local, focusing on strengthening marriage, funded by new federal grants. The AAML has also spent considerable energy and resources on strengthening marriage, which we have and will continue to report. We will also explore over the long term what constitutes a family. While traditional marriage makes things tidy for our court system and represents an ideal for most people, in the face of changing times, we must also recognize the changing definition of family and how future generations of children can thrive.
"For the first time in history, less than half of U.S. households are headed by married couples. And on Sept. 29, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing that almost 36 percent of all births are the result of unmarried childbearing, the highest percentage ever recorded.
In family law, as in the rest of American society, there is an intensifying debate about how we should respond to this kind of news. Should law and society actively seek new ways to support marriage? Or should family law strive to be marriage-neutral by providing more rights and benefits to its alternatives, such as cohabitation and single parenthood?
Some family law experts argue that our most pressing need is to find ways to equally support a wide variety of family forms. For example, the respected American Law Institute, an organization of judges, lawyers and legal scholars that periodically drafts model laws and other proposals for legal reform, has proposed a new set of laws that promotes this "family diversity model." In "Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution," some ALI scholars argue that family law should focus less on trying to channel people into marriage and more on being "fair" to people in different relationships -- in other words, that it should take families as it finds them.
I am not a law professor. But from where I sit as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, a family law that fails to encourage marriage ignores the fact that marriage has long been associated with an impressively broad array of positive outcomes for children and adults alike. Experts who contend that we need to move "beyond marriage" say they are only responding to the facts. But here is one major fact: High rates of family fragmentation hurt children.
For example, studies have consistently shown that children raised outside marriage suffer disproportionately from physical and mental illness; are more likely to drop out of school, abuse drugs or

High Conflict Parenting Louisville, KY

The High Conflict Pilot Project, about which we posted in April here, has revised its criteria. Initially there was to be a control group that received lesser services. Now, all families accepted into the program will receive the full benefit of all counseling services. They are accepting families that:

(1) Have a divorce action pending, pre or post decree;

(2) Have at least one child between the ages of 18 months and eleven years old;

(3) Have filed two or more motions related to custody or visitation;

(4) Are parties to a Jefferson Family Court Case in which parties live within driving distance
of Jefferson Family Court; and

(5) Have outstanding issues that revolve around custody and visitation issues.

They cannot accept cases where there is:

(1) Active domestic violence order;

(2) Extensive criminal record indicating severe domestic violence;

(3) Active child protective services case;

(4) A parent coordinator is present; or

(5) A record of children not in the parent’s custody.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How would I know if a family is eligible for the project?

A: Parents are eligible if they have: (1) a divorce case, pre or post decree, (2) have at
least one child between the ages of 18 months and eleven years, (3) case must be from Jefferson County Family Court, (4) all members who reside within driving distance of Jefferson County, KY, (5) if parents have filed two or more motions related to custody or visitation, and (6) have outstanding issues that revolve around custody and visitation issues.

Q. Can I refer a family if they have children younger than 18 months or older than eleven?

A. No, a family can only be eligible for the project if they have a child between the ages of 18 months and eleven years.

Q. Can attorneys refer families or must they be referred by a judge?

A. Both attorneys and judges can refer cases. Once a judge or attorney identifies a case that meets the eligibility criteria, he or she should contact Mary Lou Cambron at 595-4787 with full names of the parents as well as the case number. Ms. Cambron will screen the case and determine if it is eligible.

Q. What if I have parents that meet the first four criteria but are dealing only with property or child support?

A. These parents would not be eligible for the project. Only parents that are dealing with custody and visitation issues are eligible.

Q. What if I have a family with an active Domestic Violence Order, extensive criminal record indicating domestic violence, an active Child Protective Services Case, the presence of a Parent Coordinator, substance abuse, personality disorders, or the children are not in the parent’s custody?

A. Families are excluded from participation if they meet one of these conditions.

Q. What happens after the judge agrees to order the case into the project?

A. Mary Lou Cambron will screen the case to determine eligibility. If the case is eligible, then the judge will sign an order for parties to contact UL for assessment.

Q. Why wouldn’t I refer the family to mediation?

A. Families should have already attended mediation once on other motions.

Q. What if I have a family that cannot afford the costs?

A. If the parties qualify, a sliding scale will be used to determine the reduced fee. No family will be refused services because of their income.

For more information or to refer a family to the PACT Program, please contact Mary Lou Cambron at (502)595-4787.

Red States, Blue States, Divorce and Illegitimacy

The November Vanity Fair was called to my attention by a friend. I love that magazine, but can't seem to find the time to read it often, so I don't subsribe. I was delighted to find an online link to this article to share. Red State Babylon If the blue states are sinkholes of moral decay, as right-wing pundits insist, how come red states lead the nation in violent crime, divorce, illegitimacy, and incarceration, among other evils? To a bus-riding innocent on Manhattan's stroller-filled Upper West Side, it looks like a case of hypocrisy meets stupidityby James Wolcott, November 2006
"The red states may be more churchgoing than the blue states, but they're no strangers to Peyton Place. The 10 states in the union with the highest divorce rates in 2004 (among the 45 states for which figures are available) were all red! The fireball center of the red states when it comes to getting unhitched is, no surprise, Nevada, whose marriage laws encourage major turnover in the honeymoon suites. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, until the spouse finds out, and then it's say hi to your new friend, Al Imony. (A joke, I'm ashamed to say, I saw printed on a Vegas cocktail napkin.) Illegitimacy rates? Once again, the red states can hang their baseball caps in shame. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, of states with the highest percentages of births in 2003 to unwed mothers, 9 of the top 10 were red. Considering how ardently the hard-core Christian right is campaigning against abortion availability and birth control, this percentage could conceivably (no pun intended) rise, giving the red states an added advantage in the birth race. In an essay adapted for USA Today, Phillip Longman, author of The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity and What to Do About It, noted that progressives have fewer children, and that if demography is destiny: "[This] augurs a far more conservative future—one in which patriarchy and other traditional values make a comeback, if only by default."

Dirty Tricks in Divorce Proceedings

"As soon as the divorce papers are served, the asset shuffling begins. It's amazing what angry spouses try to do--and what they can get away with" is the distressing title of an article the November 13, 2006 edition of Forbes, published online last week.
A correction to the article: the third edition of Equitable Distribution of Property by Brett R. Turner, was published in 2005 and the dissipation section is now up to 69 pages. It is published by Thomson/West.

Comments and Apology

I owe an apology to Pieter M. Droppert of New Jersey Family & Divorce Law Blog. He posted a comment which I tried to "approve" on a PDA. I was out of the office at the time, hobnobbing with Pauline Tessler and Peggy Johnson and the collaborative family law group when I saw the email advice of the pending comment. The comment was inadvertently deleted instead. Comments are very important to every blog that accepts them and many of us of a "certain age" simply have a steep learning curve in all sorts of tech matters. Peter is a 2005 Rutgers grad and wanting to absorb all he can, and is eager to participate in this online forum where we all are learning as we teach. Good luck with your blog, Pieter, and you will find the blawgosphere a very supportive place to help you help your clients.

Making Marriage Last; Confessing Temptation

Posting of this new story does not imply endorsement. It goes against much of what my clients have told me over the years that their therapists have advised. Yet, it is interesting and on point to an intermittent series of posts that we will put up over the nest few weeks. I was going to save it to Valentine's Day, but four months is far too long to hold a thread. We may be on to summer thoughts by Valentine's Day!
Honey, I'm Thinking of Having an Affair': Therapists Advise Confessing Temptation
WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 26, 2006; Page D1
By SUE SHELLENBARGER
"Dismayed by a rash of affairs and divorces among acquaintances, Gloria and Bryan Mahan, of Cerritos, Calif., made an agreement before marrying each other three years ago: If either of them felt attracted to someone else, he or she would tell the other partner immediately. "I don't want to be a divorce statistic," says Bryan, now 26.
When Gloria later found herself attracted to another man, as difficult as it was, she confessed that fact to Bryan. He responded calmly, saying he appreciated her honesty. "That built a lot of trust for me," says Gloria, now 24. The attraction quickly faded and her bond to Bryan grew stronger.
An emerging trend in marriage therapy and education aims to head off one of the biggest risks in marriage: infidelity. Instead of waiting until after spouses stray and then attempting damage control, therapists and marriage educators are urging couples to build trust upfront by acknowledging the possibility of cheating and heading it off through explicit spoken or written agreements. Some couples are taking similar steps on their own.

Independence of the Judiciary

Reconciling the independence of the judiciary with election campaigning is very difficult. It was timely, then, that I discovered that the ABA litigation section now has RSS feed. When I subscribed, some older articles were delivered, including a poignant one, A Lawyer's Letter To His Daughter, by H. Thomas Wells, Jr., Chair, Section of Litigation when it was written in 2000.
"Promote the independence of the judiciary before whom you will practice. An independent judiciary is a hallmark of our justice system, and we lawyers should defend it vigorously. Remember that judges must make hard decisions; do not stand idly by when they are attacked for them. The ethical rules prevent judges from responding to attacks -- even unwarranted ones -- upon them or upon their decisions. It is therefore up to the professional bar, and especially the trial bar, to respond on their behalf, even when reasonable persons could disagree about whether the decision the judge has reached is a correct one. Without an independent judiciary, litigation practice would degenerate into little more than influence peddling, if not outright combat. An independent judiciary helps keep us a nation governed by laws, not by the whim of men or women.'
The entire letter is worth saving for any lawyer who has a child entering the profession; good advice, all of it.
2000 was light years ago in elective judicial politics, though. Now that judges can espouse positions, align with political parties, raise huge sums from special interest groups, the goings-on in election campaigning are going to undermine the independence of our judiciary. We must find a better solution.
Finally, you may ask with this statement of beliefs, how is it helpful to the law to criticize appellate decisions? I view talking about development of the law not as a disparagement of any appellate judge or justice, but as part of the larger aim of shaping the law in ways that make it not a "stagnant pond, but a moving stream." If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know the source of that favorite quote.

Recent Kentucky Family Law Appeals Decisions

On Monday the Kentucky Law Blog published a list of Court of Appeals family law decisions announced October 13, 2006. Kentucky Cases posted the Kentucky Court of Appeals October 27, 2006 minutes that very day, and posted here the minutes from October 20, 2006 and here the minutes from October 13, 2006. From the minutes you can instantly see what decisions were rendered that are to be published and it is fairly easy to locate family law decisions among the unpublished cases. Mike Stevens and his volunteers do a terrific job getting word of these decisions out and we owe him a big thanks and more offers to help.
Unless a decision is particularly noteworthy or newsworthy, we will continue only to post digests of recent opinions as they become final and have SW3d cites. You will have to keep reading the Kentucky Law Blog and Kentucky Cases for the latest on all Kentucky appellate decisions.

The Mediation vBlog Project

Geoff Sharp (check out the clever animation) of Mediator Blah Blah has launched The Mediation vBlog Project at Mediation vBlog. The first post is a short into by Diane Levine of Online Guide To Mediation.
All lawyers are participating in mediation and many are mediators, yet I am seeing little "kick it up a notch" or "how can we get better at this" talk locally. That is what is so invigorating about these blogs. Sharp and Levine really have their hearts, minds, and energy into resolving disputes. I'll talk more in later posts about some phenomenal mediation scholarship going on, as well as sophisticated negotiation and mediation matters I am dogging Victoria Pynchon at Settle It Now Mediation Blarg and .Settle It Now Negotiation Blog about. I want to get some high-powered CLE from her and her LLM alma matre, the Straus Institute at Pepperdine Law School. It behooves all us litigators to get on the pages of these great mediators to get up to speed!
Here's the story behind the vBlog:
"Welcome to the Mediation vBlog Project!
We’re going to be the first, the very first, to track our practice and all things mediation by video blog - a kind of mediation genome project by video blog.
My idea is to take advantage of recent video sharing technology to post short video clips of mediators everywhere at work, the more live the better. The growth of video social networking is amazing with 60,000 new videos uploaded every day and over 100 million viewed every day, as more people explore this type of online medium.
So my aim is for the vBlog Project to provide a platform for mediators from all over the world to share their skills by video.
All of us have at least one digital camera, phone camera, PDA Blackberry or Treo don’t we? - and guess what - they all take short video clips that can easily be emailed.
I have always been a little uneasy about the way we mediators work behind closed doors, without much sunlight in the room …so time to change that.
Try taking a clip of:
your opening!
a participant’s reaction after the mediation
one of the lawyer’s reflections after the mediation
debrief to camera on what went well or what didn’t
you training or talking on an aspect of mediation
Then just email it to me in any format making it up to 5 minutes long, at [email protected] … and it will be posted here at this blog in no time. It needs to be fresh and ‘live’ (no more than a week old), 2 - 5 minutes in length, and can be of any quality. Some clips taken on camera phones/PDA’s may be low res, but that’s fine. The main thing is to post. Also have as many ummms and ahhhhs in it as you want - we will get what you mean. Any one working in the LA market may have to set a standard but the rest of us can stumble through.
This is going to be your chance to share your craft with your peers. Check back for details and the first clips from trail blazing mediators… "