- Quickdraw McLaw
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Today’s topic is simple. When others ask for your recommendation on a Las Vegas mediator, who do you recommend? Is your recommendation limited to a specific area of law? What are your thoughts on using vultures Californians? What do you think about the mediators who show up on the list for mandatory mediations in court? Do you prefer a mandatory settlement conference before a judge over local mediators?
Joe Bongiovi or Stew Bell. Both are smart, prepare well, and armtwist.
The Supreme Court Mediation program is hit and miss. I've had a couple who were decent, while others were horrible–buddies of opposing counsel, personal vendetta, whatever. I don't have a problem with using Californians as mediators as long as their good.
The last mediation I had was with Jerry Whitehead. Did a great job of getting us to reach an agreement.
He's a D-bag.
I did a mediation with Judge Whitehead in Reno. I will never ever use him again. It was awful and he was just going through the potions. I have one with Porter tomorrow. I am prepared to be in the red before I even get there.
I meant motions not potions.
Bongiovi is always great. He is by far the most prepared and effective mediator I have ever used. David Lee is very good as well. I used him in a personal injury case with construction issues and he was really good. I also like Greg Haeffen and Gene Porter.
I like to use Judges and MSCs if possible — clients like it – they feel like they are getting their moment in court. I like it cause if you have a good settlement judge it helps you with arguments (for and against and you can adjust if necessary). Few of our Judges are actually excellent as settlement Judges. Wish we can do it like employment cases – before too much money is wasted — meaningful settlement conference (ok I know it is ENE) with a settlement judge (ok I know it is with a Magistrate Judge but we don't have those in our state court) is MANDATORY. I can only dream — but that would mean some would have to actually know their cases before wasting my time. Anyway, Bongiovi is excellent (too bad his wait time is so long). I always loved Stew (as a DA, on the bench and now at JAMS – wow I think I just dated myself). Anyway – he is sharp, prepared and no BS. Clients like him too – they may not like the sticker shock of JAMS but Stew is well worth that. I don't like most California mediators that come up here to socialize, eat food, tell us the standard BS and tell us how to run our cases–they have no clue; some are rude or just stupid – usually it is waste of my time and my client's money. But there were few good coverage mediators I ran across over the years – mostly out of San Francisco – liked those, don't recall names. David Lee? Good guy, tries hard, had high hopes for him, but not sure if I will use him for anything other than construction defect or insurance matter anytime soon — too bias to that crowd. But in CD and insurance, I think he can hold his ground and compete with any California overpriced "punk" trying to come to our town.
Nancy Becker. Gets it done.
Porter is okay … but he doesn't always twist arms as much as they need to be twisted.
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http://www.reviewjournal.com/columns-blogs/john-l-smith/marshals-cleanup-judge-lowers-broom
Off topic, but good to know that at least one person admits there's a problem.
speaking of Togliatti, from that report in the paper the other day on City Center, it seems like she does a good job as a settlement judge. Given the right judge, I much prefer an MSC to mediation. And I say right judge because a good judge is not always the right one. Had Cadish for MSC once and it was a complete waste–would twist the arms as needed.
Too bad she did such a bad job of handling the Judge Jones situation. The article makes her look like a hero, but almost all of this happened on HER watch. Must be nice to have close friends at the RJ …
Another vote for Joe Bongiovi.
Floyd Hayle gets it done, in my experience.
I don't agree. I spent two years litigating a complicated, multi-party case that was set for a two-day mediation with Floyd. In my mediation brief I explained that if the case was to have any chance of settling, certain parties (and their insurance reps) needed to be kept separate during the mediation. Floyd either didn't read my mediation brief or ignored my statement regarding the placement of parties for the mediation. All of the wrong parties were put in rooms together. The mediation was over my lunch. We litigated the case for another year.
Jackie Glass works hard to get the case settled and is always prepared. She reads the briefs and is great with the clients.
That would be a non vote for Jackie Glass
I have to agree that I have had great success with Judge Glass. She reads everything and has the ability to articulate the strengths – and to my dismay the weaknesses – of my case.
We have Bruce Edwards on a lot of construction cases. He knows what he is doing and knows the players, creating confidence in the process. Are there better, probably, but he is definitely good.
We ALWAYS use Ara Shirinian – wonderful guy!
Agree that Nancy Becker is good and so is Porter
Joe Bongiovi is a force of nature. For any case involving medical issues at any level, I can't think of anyone in the COUNTRY who's any better. Otherwise I prefer active practitioners to retired-judge/professional-mediator types, particularly when lead counsel are from out of state and need a reality check on how things get done here in the Outback. I got a great result from Terry Coffing last year. If I did PI, I'd use John Cotton or Drew Cass if I couldn't wait around for Bongiovi to be available.
Drew Cass will not return my calls and I have work for him. Over that crap. Bongiovi is good but talk about the wait being to long. I like Ara Shirinain, not so much a fan of his brackets but he plays fair. I like Jackie Glass, she realistic and if your dealing with an auto claim, she is checking to see how bad the driver is. She doesn't care about experts, Duke, Herr or whoever.