Law Commons^™

The Role Of Judicial Discretion In Dispute Settlement, James Andreoni, Ray D. Madoff

Ray D. Madoff

We consider two common modes of judicial resolution: judicial discretion, where the judge or jury has broad discretion in fashioning a remedy, and winner take all where the remedy is pre-determined by the governing substantive law. We analyze these systems in light of the fact that pre-trial bargainers have been shown to have excessive confidence in their own positions. We find theoretically that winner-take-all rules magnify the effects of over-confidence and diminish the likelihood of settling relative to judicial discretion. We confirm our model with a laboratory experiment showing significantly fewer pre-trial agreements under winner-take-all. These results imply that increasing …

Mediating Probate Disputes: A Study Of Court Sponsored Programs, Ray Madoff

Ray D. Madoff

This Article examines six court-sponsored programs designed to encourage the use of mediation to resolve probate disputes in five jurisdictions: Texas, Florida, Georgia, California (Los Angeles and San Francisco), and Hawaii. Some of the programs are part of larger state-run programs designed to encourage the mediation of a variety of disputes, but all were studied in terms of their specific application to probate disputes. In discussing each of the programs, this article focuses on the extent to which courts and practitioners either have addressed or proven false the suggested impediments to the use of mediation in resolving probate disputes.

Part …

Lurking In The Shadow: The Unseen Hand Of Doctrine In Dispute Resolution, Ray Madoff

Ray D. Madoff

Mediation - with its promise of less contentious, less expensive and more satisfying resolution of disputes - has been widely recommended for disputes in all areas of the law. Yet its successes have been far from uniform. While it has flourished in some areas - most notably divorce and child custody - it has met with much greater resistance in others. This is particularly puzzling for areas of the law such as will disputes, for which mediation would seem to provide so many benefits.

In this essay I argue that the answer to this conundrum can be found in doctrine …