ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESS TRIAL LAWYERS REPORT
UNDERSTANDING THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN WORKER’S COMPENSATION AND DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION
By Nikki Tolt
You are a prudent, responsible employer appropriately covered for any potential injuries your employees may incur by having Worker’s Compensation insurance. You either administer any Worker’s Compensation claims in house, or you have a third party administrator (“TPA”) handling the claims for you. When you have an injured employee, you comply with the law, report the claim to the insurance carrier, give the employee the appropriate forms, make sure the employee gets the appropriate medical care and ensure that the employee gets all the benefits he or she is entitled to. So how is it that you have run afoul of California’s disability laws as set forth in the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”)?
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THE ADVOCATE MAGAZINE
MAXIMIZING YOUR MEDIATION EXPERIENCE
The three fundamentals of settlement are preparation, evaluation and negotiation
By Nikki Tolt
In this year of the snake, the old Chinese curse, may you live in interesting times, seems to be particularly appropriate when assessing settlement options. With the budget crunch faced by the courts, one of the draconian measures that is in the process of being implemented is the closure of the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Alternative Dispute Resolution program, which includes mediation, and which annually
processes thousands of cases. In addition, in all the judicial jurisdictions, at varying levels, access to the courts is being affected, resulting in longer times to process disputes and its attendant repercussions. Thus effective means of processing cases and getting them settled becomes a valued tool in a litigator’s arsenal.
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DAILY JOURNAL -Top Neutrals 2012
TOP NEUTRALS
The List
NIKKI TOLT
ACT Mediation
Beverly Hills
Specialties: employment, personal injury, insurance
For Tolt, the gloomy economy has been a boon.
“With the unfortunate side effects of people being laid off and not readily finding new jobs, they are much more likely to brood about why they were selected for termination and end up on a lawyer’s doorstep,” she said. “We’re seeing a lot of those cases.”
As for the court’s waning resources, court closures and the uncertainty of trial dates, Tolt said that she has noticed an “interesting phenomenon.”
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DAILY JOURNAL -Top Neutrals 2008
TOP NEUTRALS
The List
NIKKI TOLT
Affiliation: Independent, First Resolution Services, Judicate
West
Rate: $5,000 a day
Location: Los Angeles
Specialty: Mediation. Individual and class action employment, personal injury, professional liability and contract disputes.
Cases: Although the majority of Tolt’s cases involve employment matters, she also is often selected in high stakes personal injury cases.
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DAILY JOURNAL -VERDICTS & SETTLEMENTS
JUDICIAL PROFILE
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
NEUTRAL’S TRAVELS HELP BRIDGE THE CULTURAL DIVIDE
An inveterate traveler, Nikki Tolt relies more on her innate people skills and flexible nature than on any orthodoxy in bringing parties together and settling the case.
By Mindy Farabee
Daily Journal Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES – A little while back, mediator Nikki Tolt found herself being asked to help wrap up a case that had been dragging on for four years.
After going up and down the appeals court and in and out of arbitration, the two parties were barely willing to sit down together. On the day everyone arrived at Tolt’s office, she noticed that one of the parties had a wife from Vietnam, who had been responsible for most of the roadblocks.
“I’ve been to Vietnam three times.” Tolt said in an interview.
Tolt said that by taking time to carve out a little culture common ground, she was able to get the woman at ease, diffuse tensions and push through a nearly half-decade impasse. She settled the case by close of business that same day.
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