Yesterday we published a story about a legal malpractice and mediation which has been widely reported. Plaintiff claimed that the attorney negligently lowered a settlement demand, which damaged it.  Discovery of the mediation discussions was not permitted.  Today we have a comment from one of the attorneys:

"A comment from counsel for Wimsatt:

       Wimsatt never reduced the settlement demand. The contemporaneous emails confirm that. Plaintiff wanted to depose others at the mediation to ask what was said about that, and the defense sought a protective order to prevent mediation related discovery, since mediation confidentiality protects mediation related communications. The Superior Court Judge (our trial level court, but this is before trial) denied a protective order. The court of appeal held that the mediation related discovery could not take place, meaning that there could be no discovery about what the mediation briefs said or what the emails about those briefs said or what anybody said or did at the mediation, but that if there was just a general discussion well before the mediation about the case, discovery about that was not protected by the mediation privilege. Nobody moved to dismiss the case. However, the court of appeal did say that the effect of this ruling is that the plaintiff relinquished his rights to pursue his legal malpractice case. So justice will be done. The plaintiff had two attorneys at the mediation and knowingly and intelligently settled the case and collected his money, and then a few weeks later claimed he should have held out for more, and blamed his lawyer." by: George Stephan