Donald Bradley Cripe

Donald B. Cripe, SCMA/ACR/AHLA

After a long and successful career as a civil and family law trial attorney, Donald B. Cripe now devotes his professional efforts to dispute resolution services. Cripe mediates for court mediation programs in two counties; he has mediated well over 3000 cases. Cripe brings his trial and dispute resolution experience to every mediation with a strong desire to help the parties resolve their cases.

Today, Cripe is a:

• Civil litigation attorney from 1988 until 2010;

  1995 - 2016 Temporary Judge in the civil, family law and criminal departments of the San Bernardino Superior Courts, also served as a Temporary Judge on a frequent basis in Riverside County until 2016.

  2008 - Present Court Program Arbitrator and Mediator;

  Settlement Judge.

   

  General civil litigator, plaintiff and defense, in matters including, but not limited to:

  business litigation (i.e, contracts, shareholder litigation, etc.);

  personal injury;

  Automotive "lemon law;"

  automotive repair;

  automobile dealership issues;

  automobile financing contracts (dealer and customer);

  wrongful termination (Employment Law);

  sexual harassment;

  discrimination;

  civil rights;

  insurance law;

  real estate - plaintiff and defense (brokers, agents, buyers, quiet title; judicial foreclosure, etc.);

  construction: some construction defects, building contractor litigation;

  collections;

  Professional Negligence, including: medical malpractice (including medicine, surgical, obstetric, chiropractic, dental and oral surgery) plaintiff and defense;

  municipal law;

  commercial litigation; adversary proceedings in bankruptcy court and family law;

  unlawful detainer (commercial & residential) matters (both as counsel and from the bench).

  Numerous jury and bench trials and hundreds of law and motion hearings on most civil and family law issues.

   

  I have been arbitrating cases for longer than I have mediated.  I am on The Kaiser Arbitration panel. 

  I have arbitrated cases of many types including professional malpractice (Legal and Medical), Personal Injury, Uninsured Motorist and others.

ADR Activities

Since 2009, Cripe’s professional life has been exclusively devoted to providing dispute resolution services. He is the owner of a successful private ADR service, called California Arbitration and Mediation Services (CAMS). He is on the American Arbitration Association Roster of Commercial Arbitrators and Mediators, and also serves as a mediator and arbitrator for the American Healthcare Lawyers has served the public and the legal community of the Riverside and San Bernardino Counties in several other capacities, including: 

• Superior Court Judicial Arbitrator (since 1996) — has conducted several hundred arbitrations
• Settlement Judge (since 1996)
• Member, Mediation Panel, Riverside County Superior Court (since inception of ADR programs in 2008)
• Family Law Mediator, Mandatory Settlement Conference program, Riverside County Superior Court
• Mediator, TAM program, Riverside County Superior Court
• Mediator, RCBA Dispute Resolution Service, Inc. (since 1999)
• Member and supervising panelist, Inland Valleys Justice Center’s Mediation Panel 
• Supervising Training Officer (conducting mediation training), Inland Valleys Justice Center
• Panel of Independent Arbitrators, Kaiser Health Plans (2006-2008)
• Guest speaker on ADR, University of La Verne College of Law
• Adjunct Professor of Law, University of LaVerne College of Law
• Board of Directors, C.A.R.E. Counseling Center, San Bernardino, Calif.
• Associate Program Developer/Legal Advisor/Co-Author, “Informed Divorce in California,” C.A.R.E. Counseling Center
• Member, Roster of Commercial Arbitrators and Mediators, American Arbitration Association
• Mediator and arbitrator, American Healthcare Lawyers AssociationLast revised Jan. 07, 2014. 4

Additional Information

• Guest Lecturer, California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), 
• Chinese Law Student Exchange Program: Mediation in California Lecturer, CSUSB: Presentation to students from the Chinese Southwest University of Political Science on the American System of Justice and the American Economic System and System of Finance
• Lecturer, CSUSB: Presentation to Delegation of Senior Prosecutors from China on the administration of the Criminal Justice System in Inland Empire, California
• Lecturer, CSUSB: Entrepreneurship Training—Conflict Management in Business
• Lecturer, CSUSB, College of Education: Negotiation Skills
• Lecturer, CSUSB, College of Education: Presentation to Delegation of Judges from China on the American Judiciary System

Cripe has served on the Riverside Family Law ADR Subcommittee and helped organize and create the Riverside County Superior Court Family Law Mediation program, for which he once served as the supervisor through the administering agency, RCBA Dispute Resolution Service, Inc. He is also on the Trial Assignment (Day of Trial) Mediation panel for the Riverside County Superior Court. He has conducted in excess of 4000 arbitrations and mediations on a wide variety of matters, including: wrongful termination, sexual harassment, personal injury, international contract disputes, domestic business disputes, medical malpractice and family law. Additionally, he conducts fee arbitrations for the Riverside 

County Bar Association. Cripe teaches mediation as a supervising attorney and an adjunct professor for law student interns/externs at the University of La Verne 

College of Law.

Mediation/ADR Philosophy

“Even as a litigator, I have consistently tried to move my cases to 

resolution through Alternative Dispute Resolution, preferably by way 

of mediation. I am a very active mediator, trained and able to employ a 

variety of approaches from the extremes of facilitative and evaluative.” 

“My most effective mediation tool is listening. I am able to tailor my 

approach to mediation to the desires of the parties and counsel. When 

I conduct a mediation, it is for the purpose of resolving the matter 

and not ‘pro forma.’ I take this process and my conduct, as well as 

my professional reputation as a conflict resolution professional, very

seriously.”

“I want the parties involved in any mediation I conduct to leave feeling 

as if they have accomplished something of value, even if the case does 

not settle. I am willing to work with the parties as long as it takes to 

come to a resolution. I will be the last person in the room and I will not 

give up until all parties are finished.”