Consumer Confidence Plunges in March

The AP wire had this headline today, "Consumer confidence sinks to lowest level in five years." What they are talking about is the fact that the consumers stopped spending money, thus sending our economy on a very quick downfall. Meanwhile, President Bush had issued a $600 check to be sent along with the tax returns - for who ever qualifies, but in fact, in the above referenced article, that would be everyone. So what would happen is that you will receive a separate check in your name for six-hundred dollars, which you may deposit to your account and spend anyway you can. The government wants us to spend this money on buying you things and raising our economy in the process, but I bet that we will use this money pay off; partially pay off our over inflated credit card balances and try to reduce the amount of debt we are in.

You see, if this was my idea and I would want the consumers to spend more money, I would never send a check. I would simply send a VISA gift card, thus forcing consumers to spend and even though some would say that this is not fair, I say that desperate times call for for desperate measures.

Forgetfulness - One of The Deadly Sins

It has been quite a long time since my last Blog entry. Is it because I had nothing to say? Is it because I did not want to say anything? Or is it because I forgot? Yes, forgot. I always wondered how people could forget to take care of something important, something that seems impossible to neglect. Paying your bills, picking up your kid from school, going to an interview or getting legal help. How can you forget? It is only recently that I found my self in these forgetful situations.

My business takes up a large part of my life and I try to remember everything I need to do, which incidentally, includes this Blog. Everyday I remember the tasks I need to perform for the day, my calendar reminds me of important phone calls and appoints, my BlackBerry notifies me of an email and my girlfriend of our anniversary. These are the things I try to keep in my mind and not to forget, but how about the other things, the secondary things, why do we forget?

I wondered about that question for a good few days and realized that it is all a matter of prioritizing. Not to say that your kid is not important enough to pick up form school, but let's face it sometimes our priorities are misplaced. So when it comes to taking care of a recently served and received court summons most people's priorities are definitely misplaced. As a mater effect it is so bad, that most of the people do not even read the summons until it is too late to respond. I realize that getting legal help is not something we do everyday and it is not as easily replicated on regular bases as let's say brushing your teeth. However, I am still a firm believer that even though there is not a lot of places to get legal help in resolving your dispute the resources are out there.

I am going to stop here or otherwise I will go into all of the benefits of mediation which I talk about every time, but from this moment on I will try to make it a habit to blog more often and you should make it a habit to re -prioritize according to situations and remember to use all the resources available to you in dispute resolution - especially in our economy.

What if you cannot get in touch with them?

First and foremost, since my last post was on Thanksgiving, please allow me to say Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year! - I hope I did not forget anyone.

Over the holidays I found my self in a very interesting dilemma. I was following up on a few cases I had mediated, but not yet settled and ran into a problem. It appeared that I had absolutely no problem of getting to one side, but not the other side of the disputants. When the defense was available, the plaintiffs were not and vice versa. It seemed that one side would accept the terms, but I was unable to get the okay from the other side in order to close the deal. This got me thinking, "Am I able to accept the terms temporarily without the other sides approval?"

Of course not! However, it did give me another challenge as a mediator - stretching time in order to create a resolution. Please not, that at not time during any of these proceeding did I lie about the reason for buying more time. On the contrary, I was very honest and used all the finesse I could muster. Without going into much detail out of respect to the confidentiality between me and parties, I do want to say one thing. When you have a lot of money (or any amount of money) riding on something and a pretty strict deadline, keep you cell phone on and check your voice and email messages as often as possible.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Every year around this time I cannot help myself, but to remember a pro-bono mediation I had at the Santa Monica City Attorney's Office. Two neighbours were fighting over the fate of an innocent rooster who just happened to live in the the heart of Santa Monica. Not to make a long story, the plaintiff, who did not like being woken up by the rooster every morning suggested that it would be served for the next Thanksgiving. Needless to say this did not make it into the settlement agreement. However, an agreement has been reached and no rooster have been harmed during that mediation.

Happy Thanksgiving!

RANDOM THOUGHTS

For the past few months I have been in desperate need of a reliable and professional court researcher. Good help is hard to find. I am really loosing my respect for humanity. People who are supposed to run professional and respectable businesses are extremely unreliable. It even goes beyond that, most of them simply lack courtesy. I am not talking about something extreme, nor am I being picky. It is not as if though I am getting upset because the researcher used a green highlighter instead of a yellow one -nothing like that. Allow me to explain:

I have interviewed a person for the job who sounded great! Knew what I was talking about, seemed to be very professional and was willing to start work immediately. We finished our conversation with me telling him to keep me posted and even though there was no deadline on my research I requested to be updated on weekly basis. Three weeks - no calls, no emails, no responses to my emails or calls. In the epic words of Donald Trump, "You're fired!"

Since then I had similar and worse experiences with three other people; I think it's evident that people in this town don't want to work. Not even for good money. As a mediator, who should be able to find common ground with anyone, I am stumped.

* * *

So the SWG strike is still going on - for the 13th day! Okay, I get it it's nothing, since last time it lasted for about six months. In any event I support the writers and can't wait until they reach an amicable resolution with the studios. Curiously enough though, I have not heard anything about the Federal mediator who has been chosen assist in resolving this issue. (Feel free to comment if you got any new info.) Let's get new shows on the road!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The Daily Record, a Maryland publication has posted an interesting article about mediation in business conflicts. At the risk of being redundant, instead of giving you my opinion and review, I will simply give you the link to the article. It's full of mediation goodness:

http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article.cfm?id=3370&type=UTTM

Feel free to comment and of course view all of the Services available to you through Right Triangle Mediation.

WRITERS GUILD - MEDIATED

A federal mediator has been brought in to mediate the Writer's Guild Strike. Sadly, it wasn't me. This dispute is a very common medium for a mediation. Unions have used federal mediators for years to help them settle strikes. Of course, Jimmy Hoffa wasn't that lucky.

From a mediator's standpoint, I must say that the task for the neutral in this dispute could workout in two ways. Either very easy or very tough. The dispute is mostly over revenue sharing generated from Internet downloads and sales. The demand is not an unreasonable one if you take into consideration the age we live in. but the amount in question is a mystery. The bottom line is going to direct the settlement of this dispute. Meanwhile, I am missing all the new episodes of my favorite shows. Are you?