Publications

I have been privileged, on two separate occasions, to be retained as a legal consultant for a program sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The program was designed to assist local authorities in strengthening the legal system in the Republic of Macedonia. In that capacity, I provided i...

BACK TO BASIC: IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS NOT TO BE OVERLOOKED By: Hon. John P. DiBlasi, J.S.C. (Ret.) & Jacqueline I. Silvey, Esq., NAM General Counsel /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/diblasi.png John Wooden, one of the most successful coaches in basketball history, always focused his teams on the basics. The first lesson he ...

Employers who use The Alternative Dispute Resolution process need to review and change their arbitration provisions regularly. Changes in statutes and case law provide a continuing challenge, as a recent ruling indicates. A decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals dealt with the validity of arbitration provisions of...

THE NUTS AND BOLTS THAT MAKE A PROVISION WORK By: Hon. John P. DiBlasi, J.S.C. (Ret.) & Jacqueline I. Silvey, Esq., NAM General Counsel /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/diblasi.png When parties enter into a commercial contract that contains an arbitration provision, they are usually in the honeymoon stage of the business rela...

The parties to a medical malpractice mediation can assist the neutral in helping them achieve a resolution of the claim in issue by presenting their respective positions in a clear and concise manner which helps to identify and limit complex medical issues. Traditionally, the parties to such a mediation have provided the neu...

"Tense" can be a good thing. The 2nd Circuit just reminded us that your arbitration agreements need to be clear as to the point in time when compulsory arbitration clauses are effective. The "tense" of your verbs matters. In Allstate v. Mun, Docket No. 13-1424-cv. (decided May 6, 2014), the Court allowed Allstate to proce...

During my fifteen years as a Judge, I have heard the testimony of hundreds of witnesses in all types of proceedings. As a trial attorney in private practice, I prepared a great number of witnesses to testify. Even with the best preparation, my father, who was a great trial lawyer, would say he would die a thousand deaths whe...

In a decision issued this past March in the case of Kaplan v. Park South Tenants Corp., 2014 WL 1092445 (N.Y. Sup.), Justice Arthur F. Engoron issued a preliminary injunction which permitted a cooperative tenant/shareholder (plaintiff) to perform certain renovations even though the co-op board had not approved his renovation...

During the course of negotiations, it is very common for one or more of the parties to ask a Mediator, "So, what do you think the case is worth?" This Mediator has a consistent response to that often-heard inquiry, "The case is worth what it settles for." Although that response may, at first, seem a bit glib, the inquiring p...

Oftentimes, parties come to a Mediation session completely focused on "big picture" issues - their leading claims and defenses and the consequent damages they are seeking to advance or refute. Great time and labor is then invested in the ensuing debate and negotiations relative to these issues. Indeed, significant progress m...