Mediation: Supreme Court Amendments, Mitchell Case
By The Supreme Court has amended three rule sets affecting mediation in North Carolina as of November 23, 2020, which you can review by clicking here. Briefly:
1) Superior Court rules regarding excusing attendance have been modified;
2) Family Financial mediation rules regarding who must attend, the ability to hold remote mediations, and excusing attendance have been modified;
3) Clerk Mediation rules regarding excusing attendance have been modified.
Finally, there has been much ado about the recently published case Mitchell v. Boswell. Click here if you’ve been out of the loop.
The case arose from a dispute over the enforcement of a memorandum of settlement, signed by attorneys on behalf of their clients. The court determined that an attorney’s signature on a settlement document is not an enforceable document. The way the mediation rules read at that time stated that agents were not authorized to sign on behalf of a party. There are implications on enforceability for the attorneys, but there are also implications for certified mediators at the beginning of the conference.
These rules are being reviewed and amended. This case and its implications deserve your rapt attention!