In Tellis v. LeBlanc, (W.D. La. 2020), in the course of litigating a motion to strike a jury demand, the defendant cited facts it had learned in a prior unsuccessful mediation about the nature of the plaintiff’s case. The plaintiff moved for sanctions based on defendant’s use of that information because the communications in the mediation were supposed to have been privileged and confidential. The court agreed that the use of the information was improper, but found no evidence that the defendant had acted in bad faith, and therefore denied the request for sanctions. The court noted that the disclosure was made for no purpose other than to highlight a position asserted in a brief, and that there was no effort to prejudice the plaintiff in any improper way.
Takeaway: While assuring privilege and confidentially in a mediation, either contractually, by court rule, or by statute, is essential, it can be difficult to obtain a remedy if one party subsequently violates the confidentiality of the mediation.
Interesting side-note: In the background section, the court noted that the magistrate who conducted the mediation ordered the parties to submit confidential statements before the mediation containing a “bottom-line settlement proposal.” I have never encountered this, and feel it could well create an obstacle to successful a negotiation. If anyone has seen this technique used in a mediation, I’d love to hear whether it was helpful or not.