News

by Eric Gillett, from the King County Bar Association’s BAR Bulletin

When I began my litigation practice more than 35 years ago, mediation of tort claims was in its infancy. And because I began my practice in Anchorage, Alaska, it was almost embryonic. Private mediators did not yet exist. Instead, we brought our disputes before the judge who was assigned to try the case. I recall more than a few instances where the judge advised one party or the other that if they did not get “on board” with settlement, they should remember that the same judge would be ruling on their pre-trial motions and the evidence during trial. That felt like a threat, probably was, and sometimes it worked...

by Eric Gillett, from the King County Bar Association’s BAR Bulletin

We are now well past the two-year anniversary when civil litigation turned upside down. Our courts came to a standstill. Pending trials were immediately continued and those underway were either quickly concluded or stopped midstream and held in abeyance for several months while our judges attempted to find a way to move forward, however awkwardly.

Mediations, like trials, which had been conducted in person almost exclusively, were shot into a virtual world almost overnight without much to guide us. Thankfully, at the same time the world seemed to close its doors, technology opened a new one, Zoom...