Hanan M. Isaacs Set To Moderate National Seminar On Newly Enacted Uniform Mediation Act

Princeton Attorney Hanan M. Isaacs Set to Moderate National Seminar on Newly Enacted Uniform Mediation Act, Already Under Attack in the New Jersey Supreme Court

For more information contact:
Katherine Kish (609) 799-8898

NEWS-For Immediate ReleaseSpeakers Are Called Upon as Friends of the Supreme Court To Rebuff Constitutional Challenge in State v. Carl Williams, a Case of First Impression Nationally

Princeton, NJ (March 29, 2005) - Hanan M. Isaacs, a mediator, arbitrator, and trial lawyer with offices in Princeton, NJ, will moderate a seminar on the recently enacted Uniform Mediation Act (UMA) at the DoubleTree Hotel in Somerset, NJ, from 8AM-1PM on Wednesday, April 20, 2005. This half-day seminar is sponsored by the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators (NJAPM), along with the Association for Conflict Resolution-NJ Chapter and the Justice Marie L. Garibaldi Inn of Court for ADR. The cost is $65 for members of sponsoring organizations and $95 for non-members. To register, contact NJAPM at www.njapm.org.

Last year, New Jersey trial judges ordered over 10,000 complex civil cases to mediation; many thousands of municipal court disputes went to mediation before any of those matters were scheduled for trial; and tens of thousands of disputes went to private mediation.

According to Hanan Isaacs, "This key teaching event has taken on even more importance now that the Supreme Court's mediator confidentiality rule and the UMA's privilege rules have all come under constitutional attack." Isaacs goes on to say, "The national template for the UMA took five years to write, two years to re-write for New Jersey, and another year for us to pass the bill and get it signed into New Jersey law. Right now, the UMA is an essential tool for mediators, lawyers, parties, and judges. If the Supreme Court rules that everything a party says in mediation can and will be held against that party in a court of law, then people will not participate openly in mediation, and the process will fail".

The UMA prevents mediation communications from leaking into later judicial or arbitration proceedings under most circumstances, and establishes new rules governing confidentiality, privilege, disclosure, and mediator impartiality during every phase of mediation. Isaacs said, "The UMA was created precisely to deal with the interplay between a facilitative process, in which interests are identified and balanced on the one hand, and an adjudicative process, in which rights are vindicated and wrongs punished or remediated on the other." "The Court's decision in State v. Williams," said Isaacs, "will test whether it is possible to build a bridge between the two models, recognizing the court system's legitimate and occasional need for evidence emerging from mediation communications, while giving maximum protection to mediation's sanctity."

The seminar will have a panel of nationally distinguished speakers who will discuss the UMA's impact on mediator engagement letters, confidentiality agreements, and settlement agreements. They will address ethical dilemmas that mediators and advocates now face during and after mediation. They also will dissect State v. Williams and explain its practice implications for mediators, parties, lawyers, and judges.

Seminar panelists include: Honorable Linda Greenstein, N.J. Assemblywoman from Mercer County; Professor Richard Reuben, University of Missouri Law School and an Official Reporter for the UMA Committee to the American Bar Association's National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws; Professor Jonathan Hyman, a mediation expert who teaches at Rutgers School of Law in Newark; ?Valerie Brown, Esq., Legislative Counsel to the N.J. State Bar Association (NJSBA); Michael Wolf, J.D., APM, Counsel to the National Mediation Board; and, serving as panel moderator, Hanan M. Isaacs, J.D., M.A., APM, former President of NJAPM & former Chair of the NJSBA Dispute Resolution Section. Hanan Isaacs, Jonathan Hyman, and Richard Reuben are all advising the New Jersey State Supreme Court in the matter of the challenge.

For more information on the seminar call Anthony Limitone, Jr., Esq., APM, at 973-539-6122 or go to www.njapm.org.