Mediation & Arbitration Services

Our Alternate Dispute Resolution Department is headed by our firm's counsel, Marguerite T. Simon.

Services provided include:

a) Mediation, a non-binding process in which the parties attempt to reach a settlement of specifically designated issues, or a global settlement of all issues with the assistance of a legal facilitator, or mediator.

b) Arbitration, a binding mini-trial process in which the parties present live testimony and documentary evidence to an arbitrator, who acts as both Judge and Jury, makes factual determinations, legal conclusions, and issues a final decision.

c) Special Master, a supervisory or Case Management role over the pre-trial aspects of litigation. Although the dispute will generally be concluded before a sitting State or Federal Court Judge, the complex nature of the litigation and the Special Master's expertise require a regular and hands on management of the discovery process.

Marguerite T. Simon

From 1984 to 2004, Marguerite T. Simon served as a Judge of the New Jersey Superior Court, seated in Bergen County. She retired as the Presiding General Equity Judge of the Chancery Division. A graduate of Barnard College and the University of Virginia Law School, she started her legal career on Wall Street, with the prestigious firm of Simpson, Thacher, & Bartlett. Her experiences as attorney and Judge, and her temperament and knowledge, allows her to help parties find a practical approach to their legal disputes.

She is available to serve as a mediator, arbitrator, or special master.

The retired Judge will oversee complex commercial cases, injunctive relief matters, corporate and shareholder proceedings, land use litigation, prerogative writ actions, contested estates and guardianships, election disputes, and other significant litigated matters.

Lawrence M. Simon

Lawrence M. Simon has participated in Arbitrations and Mediations as both an attorney for a party involved in the dispute, and as an arbitrator or mediator. His first experience with Alternate Dispute Resolution, or ADR, was in 1989 in the Small Claims Court of the New York City Civil Court. While the amount in dispute may have been higher in his subsequent participation in arbitration or mediation, the elements of the process, the lessons learned from the reduction of costs and elimination of animosity have never been forgotten.

Mr. Simon is a court appointed arbitrator in the Bergen County Superior Court for Personal Injury, Motor Vehicle, Product Liability, and Commercial Arbitration. He is also a court approved mediation pursuant to Court Rule 1:40 and appears on the Official Roster of Mediators. Based upon his significant experience as a Mediator, Mr. Simon is an eligible mentor to new Mediators.

Mr. Simon is available to serve as a private or court appointed mediator, or arbitrator, on matters involving civil litigation, personal injury, wrongful death, product liability, premises liability, medical malpractice, professional malpractice or negligence, construction disputes, lemon law, consumer fraud, insurance law, and contested estates or guardianships.

The Law Offices of Lawrence M. Simon are located just fifteen minutes from New York City, in Ridgewood (Bergen County), New Jersey, and serves residents of New Jersey and New York, including communities such as Ridgewood, Hackensack, Paramus, Teaneck, Englewood, Jersey City, Union City, North Bergen, Fort Lee, Elizabeth, New Brunswick, Paterson, Hawthorne, Fort Lee, and Newark, New Jersey, as well as the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Rockland County, Orange County, Westchester County, and Nassau County, New York.