Cal Biz Lit

Emotional Intelligence and Why It’s Important In Mediation

The other day, CBL ran across an interesting mediation article in International Comparative Jurisprudence by Edward J. Kelly of the University of Tennessee and Natalija Kaminiskiené of Lithuania’s Mykolis Romeric University. The authors write about the important role played by emotions in the search for dispute resolution.  This brought back many recollections from mediations, from settlement conferences, and from times when CBL represented individuals in litigation matters.

While there are a number of definitions of “emotional intelligence,” and no small amount of controversy in the scientific community about the validity of a number of them, Kelly and Kaminiskiené cite one definition and one model that are both critical in every negotiation.  The definition is from Bowling & Hoffman (2000) Bringing Peace into the Room: The Personal Qualities of the Mediator and Their Impact on the Mediation. Bowling and Hoffman define emotional intelligence as “the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.”  And the four elements of the model from Bradberry & Greaves, 2009 Emotional Intelligence are these: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.

So let’s think about why this is important from the standpoint of both an attorney /advocate during the negotiation process and from that of a mediator. We'll do that right after the jump. 

PROPOSITION 65 SIXTY DAY NOTICES ARE SKYROCKETING – AND WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE WHY!

It’s been more than a year since CBL did an analysis of the frequency various chemicals were the subjects of Proposition 65 Sixty Day Notices / Notices of Violation. As most readers will know, before  private party enforcer can bring an enforcement action under Proposition 65, he, she or it must provide the alleged violator with a written notice sixty days (if personally served) 65 days (if mailed to a company in California) or 70 days (if mailed outside the state). The notice must also be filed with the Attorney General’s office, where it immediately becomes a public record. Our analysis of the 2015 notice is here, and analysis of the 2014 notices is here.  

There are more than 900 chemicals on the list.  But most never are involved in an exposure, whether warned or unwarned. So in 2014, there were 1045 notices, with nearly all the focus on 12 chemicals. In 2015, there were 1335 notices, and 30 identified chemicals. (Some notices alleged exposures to more than one chemical). But 1246 of the chemical naming were of DEHP, lead or DINP.

Not that much changed in 2016, but wait until you read about this year. Last year, the top eleven chemicals in the 1577 notices were these:

Lead or lead compounds                               847

DEHP                                                             591

DINP                                                              148

Cadmium                                                       123

Carbon Monoxide                                            77

Acrylamide                                                       46

DBP                                                                  31

Benzophenone                                                 31

Coal tar                                                             24

DIDP                                                                14

BPA                                                                  14

Also noticed five times or more were acetaldehyde, arsenic, formaldehyde (gas), marijuana smoke, naphthalene, radio nuclides, TDCPP, and wood dust. Eleven other chemicals were the subjects of notices fewer than five times.

Nothing too surprising about any of this – the big players are lead, DEHP, DINP and cadmium.  The BPA listing only took effect mid-year, so we will be expecting more notices of that chemical found in hard plastic products.

But now let’s look at 2017, where things start to get really crazy.  More about it after the jump, and you don’t want to miss this one.