E! Online reports in Michael Richards' Mea Culpa Mediation that the former Seinfeld star and local comedian will meet with the African-American comedy club patrons "whose heckling triggered the racist rant heard round the world."

The men's attorney, Gloria Allred, said a local judge will facilitate a meeting to help the parties resolve the dispute, apparently to open with a "personal apology for [Mr. Richard's] behavior."   

The value of apology in resolving litigation or preventing suit in the first instance remains a matter of controversy among ADR professionals and scholars alike.  

The most thorough and thoughtful article I have read on the issue is Apology Subverted:  The Commodification of Apology.  The article's author, Lee Taft, argues that apology loses its moral force if used as a bargaining chip, particularly where the transgressor is protected from liability for his admission of wrongdoing.

See also Marlynn Wei's 2006 article, Doctors, Apologies and the Law, an Analysis and Critique of Apology Laws from the Yale Law School Student Scholarship Series and Erin O'Hara's Apologies and Thick Trust -- What Spouse Abusers and Negligent Doctors Might Have in Common , which I've blogged about earlier here and here.