Gary Weiner, Lawyer and Mediator

08/19/2021

I've been digging and found an artifact. January 2000 to July 2004. Loved that job. Would have stayed on til retirement had there been funding.

05/24/2019

Today's pick for lawyer to admire?
Jerrold Nadler

04/11/2019

Friends, a little help requested. I reached the limit imposed by Facebook on invitations to my shows in Sebastopol and Oakland.

I will be forever grateful if you'd take a moment and share the show announcement and invite your friends to join you at one of the shows.

11/07/2018

Big news in mediation. New evidence code section requires attorneys have their clients sign this form evidencing the clients' understanding of confidentiality. This ends the successful years' long effort to protect mediation confidentiality in California. Thanks in large part to my friend, Ron Kelly.

Mediation Disclosure Notification and Acknowledgment

To promote communication in mediation, California law generally makes mediation a confidential process. California’s mediation confidentiality laws are laid out in Sections 703.5 and 1115 to 1129, inclusive, of the Evidence Code. Those laws establish the confidentiality of mediation and limit the disclosure, admissibility, and a court’s consideration of communications, writings, and conduct in connection with a mediation. In general, those laws mean the following:
• All communications, negotiations, or settlement offers in the course of a mediation must remain confidential.
• Statements made and writings prepared in connection with a mediation are not admissible or subject to discovery or compelled disclosure in noncriminal proceedings.
• A mediator’s report, opinion, recommendation, or finding about what occurred in a mediation may not be submitted to or considered by a court or another adjudicative body.
• A mediator cannot testify in any subsequent civil proceeding about any communication or conduct occurring at, or in connection with, a mediation.

This means that all communications between you and your attorney made in preparation for a mediation, or during a mediation, are confidential and cannot be disclosed or used (except in extremely limited circumstances), even if you later decide to sue your attorney for malpractice because of something that happens during the mediation.

I, _____________ [Name of Client], understand that, unless all participants agree otherwise, no oral or written communication made during a mediation, or in preparation for a mediation, including communications between me and my attorney, can be used as evidence in any subsequent noncriminal legal action including an action against my attorney for malpractice or an ethical violation.

NOTE: This disclosure and signed acknowledgment does not limit your attorney’s potential liability to you for professional malpractice, or prevent you from (1) reporting any professional misconduct by your attorney to the State Bar of California or (2) cooperating with any disciplinary investigation or criminal prosecution of your attorney.

[Name of Client] [Date signed]
[Name of Attorney] [Date signed]

06/29/2018

Brand new attorney website! Thanks to Heather Polley for making it so!

Gary Weiner is a Sonoma County attorney with offices on Main Street in Sebastopol, focused on personal injury, real estate, civil litigation, business and family estate planning. He also serves as as a mediator.

12/14/2017

The new fall issue of Dispute Resolution Magazine, the quarterly published by the ABA Section on Dispute Resolution has a summary of the final report of the Mediation Research Task Force. I was chair of the task force.

This all began in 2012 when I published an article entitled “A CALL FOR EVIDENCE-BASED STANDARDS FOR MEDIATOR QUALITY” which has now been downloaded well over 1,000 times. After publication of the article, a brief was published in the Newsletter of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution which is a very highly regarded and well-funded international ADR organization that serves the largest commercial enterprises on the planet. I was soon invited to deliver a lecture on the paper at the Law Chambers of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

In April of 2018, I will be at the annual conference of the dispute resolution section in Washington, DC, to preside over a panel with my co-chair and lead author of the report, Prof. Roselle Wissler, and two other members of the task force to formally present the findings.

This is a pretty big deal in the wider world of mediation.

10/14/2017

This is the place I am sending money.

Redwood Credit Union (RCU) is now accepting monetary donations to aid the North Bay Fire relief efforts in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, and Lake Counties

09/07/2017

This is a really big deal. I have been opposed to the use of mandatory arbitration clauses in all kinds of contracts for all kinds of reasons. When the court in CA decided to uphold provisions making it impossible for people to get together in a class action to sue their cell phone, banking, credit card and a whole host of other large service providers, I was furious. Class actions are the only way most people ever see relief from small abuses by huge corporations that are perpetrated against lots of people.

""Today was a big day for victims of bank fraud, California consumers, and the attorneys who represent them.
The California Legislature has approved Senate Bill 33, which was inspired by the Wells Fargo scandal and will in the future give victims of bank fraud a better chance at justice by blocking the use of forced arbitration in such cases.
As a sponsor of the bill, Consumer Attorneys of California played a big role in this victory. We built support for the measure and ran an effective Facebook ad program in swing members’ districts.
Now the bill is off to Gov. Brown’s desk."

08/31/2017

one cool thing: if you search bandcamp gary weiner you get google to take you to my bandcamp page as the first hit. digital marketing pro!!!

08/29/2017

BANDCAMP PAGE!!

track by Gary Weiner

08/14/2017

Now more than ever. Join. Contribute.

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG), founded in 1937 as the first racially-integrated, human rights bar association, is committed to ending white supremacy in all its forms. Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Heather Heyer, who was murdered was while standing up to racism and fascism, as well as the 19 additional counter-protesters injured at the “Unite the Right Free Speech Rally” in Charlottesville, VA this weekend.
Primarily through local NLG chapters, the NLG provides mass defense legal support for anti-racist community organizers participating in protest actions and other demonstrations. In Charlottesville, this support included:
• Know Your Rights trainings
• NLG Legal Observers
• Legal representation and jail support for arrestees
• Legal support hotline (see full list of local hotline numbers)
As an organization committed to human rights, the NLG categorically refuses to provide legal support to white supremacists or other hate groups.
"The Charlottesville community experienced multiple waves of horror this weekend. NLG trained Legal Observers were on the ground watching as those who terrorized our community by fulfilling their promises to enact violence. Our hearts our broken but our chapter is united and resolute in our determination to provide legal support to organizers who will continue to protect Charlottesville," said Andrew Mahler, NLG Central VA Chapter Chair.While the hateful rhetoric and policies of President Donald Trump and his administration have emboldened racists to assert their “right” to hate speech and violence, the United States was founded in white supremacy—it is nothing new. It is in the spirit of dismantling this oppression that we move forward in the struggle to liberate our institutions, society, and culture.
The National Lawyers Guild, whose membership includes lawyers, legal workers, jailhouse lawyers, and law students, was formed in 1937 as the United States’ first racially-integrated bar association to advocate for the protection of constitutional, human and civil rights.
https://www.nlg.org/

"Human rights over property interests"

08/05/2017

GARY WEINER LEAD VOCAL AND VISION WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY GARY WEINER, TOO.