We Are Dispute Resolution Experts

At Judges ADR we are certified in Civil and Advanced Civil mediation, and our judge experience ensures mastery in any mediation or arbitration style.

We Help People Resolve Contested Legal Disputes

Longshore Worker Injuries

The primary federal laws that cover longshore, harbor and oil platform workers’ injuries are complex and frequently applied by judges in different ways depending on the facts of a case. Our mediators presided over and decided these very kinds of cases. This thorough and comprehensive knowledge allows us to give the parties highly specialized legal insight and observations that guide them to well-informed and thought-out settlement decisions.

Defense Base Act Injuries

Civilian contractor employees injured while performing work in a combat theater rely on a particularly complex federal law to provide protection. Our judges have unique skills and experiences that allow them to fully understand and appreciate the nature of these cases. We have mediators with both military service backgrounds and combat theater deployment experience. We rely on these to provide the most informed and helpful settlement support possible.

Whistleblower Retaliation Protection

There are approximately 25 major federal whistleblower protection laws that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration oversees as well as others that fall under different federal agencies. Some attorney mediators have specialized involvement with a few of these laws. Our judge mediators have experience with virtually all of them and can guide parties in a mediation to a better understanding of the concerns they should fully consider during settlement negotiations.

FAQs

What are the benefits of mediation?

In the last four years, the Department of Labor’s Office of Administrative Law Judges experienced an unprecedented increase in case volume. During this period, each judge’s case load increased by more than 300 percent. In the last eight years judges have gone from having a little more than 100 cases a year assigned to them to now getting that many assigned to them in a single month. At the same time, there have been judicial staffing changes and budget reductions. As a result, cases now take significantly longer to go to a hearing and have a judge issue a decision and order. The parties in federal worker’s compensation and whistleblower cases can now expect more than 12 to 14 months for their case to work through the system. Alternatively, mediation can help the parties make a fully informed and thoughtful settlement decision that ends the case in as little as one month.

Why should I use Judges ADR?

Our mediators possess unique skills and experience that allow us to be better equipped to address any aspect of a worker’s compensation case. Our extensive experience as litigators ensures that we fully understand the concerns, attorney and adjuster work demands, and litigation risks for any case that we mediate. More importantly, as retired judges, we each presided over almost every kind of workers compensation and whistleblower case arising from a federal law. As a result, not only do we know the law that applies to these cases, but we also understand how a judge will consider that law and the regulations and procedures that implement it.

Where and how do you conduct a mediation session?

Our mediators provide clients with options that best work for them. We can conduct mediation sessions in person at an agreed upon location that is best for the parties. Alternatively, we are fully capable of holding a mediation session by using any of the primary video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, MS Teams and Google Meet. We understand that different clients have diverse needs, abilities, and concerns, and we work with them to provide the most efficient and successful mediation experience possible. We primarily travel throughout the East Coast, South and Midwest of the U.S., and, although we do not routinely conduct West Coast mediation sessions, we can manage such a case with the right circumstances and planning.

What information do the parties provide in advance of the mediation?

Our mediators ask the attorneys for both sides to provide confidential mediation memos that identify the contested facts and issues in a case. Additionally, we find it exceptionally helpful when the attorneys go further and describe the background, concerns, and expectations of their clients. For an attorney representing an injured worker, this includes information about the person’s personal and professional history, their family, interests, financial situation, education, and specific experiences and concerns with the case so far. For attorneys whose clients are employers and insurance carriers, we appreciate additional information related to the nature and amount of work their insurance adjuster has performed on the case, the adjuster’s primary concerns about the current status of the case and its processing time, and how and why they think mediation could be beneficial in the case.

How do I schedule a mediation session?

Our website contains individual calendars for our mediators. They reflect when a mediator has available days and whether that availability is for an in-person or video session. If you have interest in our mediation service, please use the below “Request a Mediation” function or one of the others on this website. It will ask you to provide specific contact information and allows you to include comments about specific needs or concerns related to your request. You will receive a prompt response to every inquiry.

Client Testimonials

We deeply value the feedback and opinions of our clients and hope they help future clients understand why Judges ADR is a leader in mediation and arbitration services.

I have found Judge Daly to be engaged, responsive, and willing always to listen to my side of the equation. His listening is his super power, as it allows him to identify the underlying issues and dynamics that can make an otherwise “simple” or “generic” LHWCA claim much more difficult to resolve amicably; this willingness to listen allows him to meaningfully advance the process by not simply shutting down one side’s view, or discounting some of the emotional issues that sometimes cloud a claim. I have always been impressed with his ability get the parties on track and stay on track even during heated negotiations, and have successfully mediated cases that I was skeptical would ever be settled. He is an excellent mediator!

Employers Attorney for Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act Cases

As a practicing attorney who has been involved in several mediations with Judge Tracy Daly, I believe that he is a consummate professional and mediator. I commend his thorough preparation and his easy manner with the parties and especially the clients. He uses his experience as a judge to educate the parties and provide an unbiased evaluation of the relative strengths and weaknesses of their positions that assists all in determining the true value of a settlement over continued litigation. His process and style are refreshing, and they WORK!

Claimants Attorney for Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act Cases

Judge Daly’s vast and varied experience as a judge is a tremendous help in successfully resolving claims under the Defense Base Act. Judge Daly has a unique perspective as both a former DOL ALJ and Marine Corps judge; he connects with DBA claimants in a way that is meaningful and is able to help bridge the gap between DBA claimants and the employer-carrier. Judge Daly has my highest recommendation as a mediator in DBA cases.

Claimants Attorney for Defense Base Act Cases

I have been a Longshore Act practitioner for 20 years and have had the pleasure of working with Judge Daly on several occasions over the years as an ALJ, and also as an ALJ mediator. As an ALJ mediator I found Judge Daly to be always well prepared and well versed with the Longshore Act. More importantly, Judge Daly did an excellent job of establishing trust with the parties, even on contentious cases, and found novel ways of achieving settlement. I recommend Judge Daly as an effective Longshore Act mediator.

Employers Attorney for Defense Base Act Cases.

As an attorney defending clients under the LHWCA, I practiced for many years before Judge Daly. As a jurist, he was detailed-oriented, pragmatic, and eminently fair. His knowledge of our bar’s unique practice areas allowed him to understand the core issues of the cases before him as well as the litigants’ respective positions. In settlement negotiations, he brings not only that experience, knowledge and pragmatism, but also a critical understanding of the parties’ motivations and the thought processes behind their positions. That respectful but honest approach is invaluable in shepherding parties in dispute to a place of reasonable compromise, and it makes Judge Daly a highly effective mediator.

Employers Attorney for Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation and Defense Base Act Cases

Judge Daly’s mediation style is thorough and honest. He doesn’t just move numbers. He works the mediation through the incentives that might tip the scales for the parties as well as the case details that might influence the bench at trial. It’s clear he approaches mediation with the perspective of a judge and an advocate. I have found the weight of his authority and the diligence of his mediation helpful in resolving tough cases, moving tough adversaries, and educating tough clients.

Claimants Attorney for Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation and Defense Base Act Cases

I had the opportunity to practice before Judge Daly, both as a presiding judge on cases pending in the Covington office as well as a settlement judge. In both instances, I found him to be thoroughly prepared and knowledgeable with an effective judicial demeanor. As a settlement judge, he analyzed and explained the exposures and risks extremely well and in understandable terms for both sides to arrive at reasoned conclusions on case value for resolution.