Obtaining Discovery Relating To a Confidential Private Mediation

December 15, 2020  |  New York Law Journal

When parties engage in private mediation, they frequently assume that their mediation-related communications are not discoverable in litigation. In fact, while courts generally cloak court-sponsored mediation with a fair degree of confidentiality and permit discovery concerning the mediation only upon a heightened showing of need, there is conflicting caselaw whether the same rule applies to confidential private mediations. In our latest article, we discuss Southern District Judge Jesse M. Furman’s recent decision in Accent Delight International Ltd. v. Sotheby’s, concluding that the heightened standard of need should be applied to confidential private mediations.

Obtaining Discovery Relating To a Confidential Private Mediation (pdf | 496.38 KB)