MAP Background Information Provided

Judge John M. True, III (Ret.)

ADR Services, Inc.
100 First Street, 27th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105

(415) 272-0900 Fax:(415) 772-0960

600 per hour

$550 in Northern California; $600 in Southern California, out of state. Administrative fees charged by ADR Services Inc. include $250/party for mediations and $500/party for arbitrations. Please see my website for further details. Out-of-area travel costs are usually negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

0067848

Retired Judge/Justice

Served for 11 years on the Alameda County Superior Court in various assignments including six years handling a civil trial department. Active settlement judge during years handling civil trials. Have handled over 100 mediations since I left the bench and was an active mediator before I joined the Court. As the Chair of the Court's ADR Administrative Committee, was instrumental in establishing and later overseeing the management of the Alameda County Court Mediation Program as well as its Discovery Facilitation Pilot Program. I am currently a panelist on the Court Mediation program and have served on the ND Cal panel both before and after my years on the bench.

Received forty hours of formal training at US District Court for the Northern District of California early in my career. Have participated in numerous CLE programs on mediation both as a provider and participant. Taught negotiations and mediations as an adjunct professor at Hastings for two years. Regular attendee at monthly ND Cal mediator Round Tables.

I am an experienced labor and employment law arbitrator in both union and non-union employment matters. Cases I've handled have included discharges, contract interpretation disputes and class action claims. I am also active in the arbitration of commercial disputes including contract issues, real property claims and medical malpractice. I am on the AAA Employment, Labor and Commercial Panels as well as the California State mediation and Conciliation Panel (labor arbitrations) and the Kaiser Permanent Panel (medical Malpractice).

Have been on ND Cal ENE panel since its inception and have participated in perhaps a dozen or more ENE proceedings with some settling as a result of mediative efforts on my part.

I was very active as a settlement judge on my Court, settling numerous cases in almost every civil category, including contracts, torts, property issues and probate.

BA (American History) Trinity College 1966; JD UC Berkeley School of Law 1975

I always aim to empower parties to take ownership of their role in the decision-making process during a mediation. However, I will be evaluative when asked. Not afraid to make a mediator's proposal, but I only do so when other alternatives have been exhausted and in situations in which I feel it will assist the parties in reaching agreement.

I believe an arbitrator must be scrupulously fair and a true neutral. I follow the applicable law and/or contract language. I give each side a full opportunity to be heard and I write an award fully explaining my reasons for my decision.

I usually require some briefing ahead of time and write out an evaluation for the parties. I encourage them to allow me to try to mediate before I give them my evaluation. Even after the evaluation is provided to the parties, I try to encourage settlement -- and am successful in some instances.

Mediations:
Over the course of my career, I have seen a lot and try to use my experience to help litigants make the right choices when they get together to resolve their dispute. But I emphasize that it is their decision.
Arbitrations:
I have kept up with developments in labor and employment law by, among other methods, teaching it at various Bay Area law schools. This enable me to bring a certain amount of expertise as well as experience to conflicts of this sort.
Contact Information:
I can be reached through my case manager at ADR Services, Inc., Kathleen Emma (Kathleen@adrservices.org).

I am an older, experienced, retired trial court judge with a high degree of competence in both mediation and arbitration practices and techniques, as well as a special interest in employment and labor issues (which I am often teaching at one Bay Areal law school or another). My trial court experience has widened my area of knowledge to other subject matters as well.