LEX FUGIT

MEDIATOR HIJINKS

"You can't play your friends like marks, Hooker."-Henry Gondorff, The Sting.

As a facilitator, I understand that the mediation process is not about me.  When attorneys hire me, it is based on a belief that I can help them and their clients resolve a case.

I am grateful for their consideration.  They could have hired someone else. My mediation "Hippocratic" Oath is:  Do No Harm to a Lawyer, especially in their relationship with their client.

i don't  use a case as an opportunity to wring as much money out of the parties as I can.

I've seen it done.

Back before mediation essentially became a part of every case, an attorney in Flint became an player in the facilitation game.  They had been appointed by the judge on one of my cases.  I did not know them.  This lawyer sent us their agreement, and procedures, which included 4 different levels of billing.  I don't remember all 4, but I remember a rate for their time, a rate for administrative work, and a rental rate for the conference room at his office!  As I had an office in Flint across the street, I notified them that I did not need to rent their room, and they could come across the street to my place.  I don't remember if there was a special rate for travel.  

That experience led me to explicitly state to my mediation clients that there would never be an administrative/file set up fees.  

I know mediators who charge minimum fees, whether the case is settled, dismissed or otherwise disposed of before the hearing.  

Others charge a fee if a case is adjourned, whatever the reason.  I have heard of adjournment fees of $1000.  One mediator, perhaps waxing nostalgic for their days as a judge, will assess the whole of the adjournment fee to the party they feel was responsible for the adjournment.  Talk about making attorney/client relations difficult.  

(MOCK) TRIALS AND (TECHNICAL) TRIBULATIONS-PART 1

"Look at all my trials and tribulations
Sinking in a gentle pool of wine (I wish,ed.)
Don't disturb me now....."

CC's Plaintiff Attorney Team

The lines above are taken from "The Last Supper", a song from Jesus Christ Superstar.  An appropriate opening to this piece.  Firstly, Good Friday is this week.  Second, this first Rock Opera came out when I was in high school at Detroit Catholic Central.  And, most importantly, the lyrics are a spot on summary of my state after the twelve hour Mock Trial regional on February 26, 2022, wherein I coached that same Catholic Central high school's Mock Trial team.

The Michigan Mock Trial competition is sponsored each year by the very noble non-profit , The Michigan Center for Civic Education, and its director, Ellen Zwarensteyn.  They do a great job.  I first became involved with Mock Trial as a judge in 2012.  At that time, the Center for Civic Education had just lost its federal funding amid a round of other cutbacks.  The lost $250,000 yearly allocation has still not been completely replaced from other sources.  Knowing that history adds to my admiration for what the Center continues to do.

Briefly, Mock Trial is a competition, where high school students will try a case, based on a set of facts, pleadings, statements and exhibits released in November each year.  A team is a minimum of 6-3 lawyers and 3 witnesses.  Teams are required to litigate both sides of a case. No jury per se. Trials are scored by a panel of 3 judges.  The competition's first round is a regional of 3 trials in one day.  This is a highly abbreviated description.

Teams are coached by teachers and/or volunteer attorneys.  It is a big time commitment for a practicing lawyer.  I was an assistant coach back in 2015, but I had to drop out until this year because of my work schedule.  Coaching Mock Trial was near the top of my post litigation career list of things to do.  And, ironically, coaching the young CC lads would get me back into a courtroom, a rare occurrence since the March 2020 Covid court shutdown.  

Covid had hit the Mock Trial program as well.  The March 2020 shutdown order came in the middle of regional competition season, and the remainder of the regionals and state finals were cancelled.  The 2021 season was totally virtual.  There were many reasons for that arrangement, one of the foremost being that all the courthouses that hosted the trials continued to be closed to the public.  The 2022 season was to include live proceedings as an option, and that certainly would have been my preference.  The Omicron variant put an end to that.  

Although Catholic Central High School has a great tradition of attorney and judicial alumni, it has been historically difficult to get attorney coaches for the team.  It is a big commitment.  Last year the team was coached by a CC teacher, who had left at the end of the school year.  There had not been a lawyer coach in several years and during at least one of those years, CC did not field a team.

In 2021-22, I had more time.  And Bryan Kontry, a 2001 CC alum, took time from his full time practice and young family to help  coach the team.  We had 4 veterans.  We also had 6 freshmen.  We had no faculty moderator.  As the late, great Jack Benny said in similar circumstances:  Yipe!

 

(MOCK) TRIALS AND (TECHNICAL) TRIBULATIONS-PART 2

Feb. 26, 2 hours into trial-only 10 hours left to go.

Part one of this piece, can be found here.

First, a bit about the students of Detroit Catholic Central High School.  The number of class and extracurricular choices available to the boys is amazing.  There are 35 clubs listed in the Student Life section of the school website.  That number does not include the teams for 16 sports .  Classes begin at 8am, though there is something called Zero Hour, from 7am-8am.  Various clubs and activities meet an hour before classes start.  There is daily Mass at 7:20am.  When classes end at 2:45pm, some students leave right away, but a whole lot stay.  When our practices ended at 4:30, there were still a lot of students in the renovated library, now called the Learning Commons.

Mock Trial starts comparatively late in the school year, and many of my young men already had a full academic and extracurricular plate before our first meeting.  Practices were missed for such things as Finance Club (a big deal at school), the March for Life in Washington, meetings to approve Eagle Scout projects, sports team practices and personal training.  Many had other activities that did not start until after our practice was over.

Back in my early CC days, even though I was in the Honors Science program (hilarious considering my post-high school educational and career path), after school I was chiefly concerned with schlepping to the McNichols DSR stop, to see if I could catch a bus that went farther west than Grand River Ave.

Many CC alumni of my vintage, take pride in the memory of the blue collar, hardscrabble Outer Drive Shamrock student of yesteryear.  We did do more with less.  The world has changed a lot since then.  CC students have more assets and more options, but they take full advantage.  They have set some lofty goals for themselves.  One of my boys hopes to get a service academy appointment next year.  Another was notified of his acceptance to U of M, during our non-dress competition rehearsal.

CC once had the reputation as the "jock" school, with U of D High being the academic school.  We have a lot of sports teams and many of them do very well.  As I write this, I read that Catholic Central has just won its 11th consecutive academic team state championship.  In addition, CC is breaking ground on a $35M  STEM wing addition which will essentially double the size of the school.  For those of my generation who may not be familiar,STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  

One final stereotype that I found was not supported by the evidence.  Some keyboard PhDs post that places like Catholic Central are more like English boys private schools than the hundreds of Catholic high schools that covered the city of Detroit in the 1950s and 60s.  Not based on my experience.   My future Eagle Scout and Wolverine works a part time job at Taco Bell.  When I was a teenager, my standards for jobs weren't high (dietary department porter, "warehouse rat" at Toys R Us to name a few), but even I drew the line at places like Taco Bell.  Another team member, who aspires to go to law school, works part time in the family convenience store.   Tuition is high at CC, but a very substantial percentage of families get some form of tuition assistance.

But, as always I digress.  Back to Mock Trial.