Digital Commons Network^™

What Is "(Im)Partial Enough" In A World Of Embedded Neutrals?, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

The Supreme Court’s decision in Caperton v. A. T. Massey Coal Co. highlighted the fragility of judicial independence and impartiality in the United States. A similar, less-noticed fragility of independence and impartiality exists among the arbitrators, mediators and administrative hearing officers who resolve an increasing number of disputes. Everywhere one looks, there is unremarked yet remarkable evidence of the rise of - embedded neutrals, particularly in uneven contexts between one-time and repeat players. This phenomenon becomes particularly worrisome when the embedded neutral’s role is due to their special relationship with the repeat player, and the one-time player is not as …

You've Got Your Mother's Laugh: What Bankruptcy Mediation Can Learn From The Her/History Of Divorce And Child Custody Mediation, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

Due to our current deep economic woes, growing bankruptcy filings, and apparent legislative unwillingness to expand the number of judges, bankruptcy courts are exploring the use of mediation to help resolve adversary proceedings, negotiate elements of reorganizations, and deal with claims that cannot be heard directly in bankruptcy proceedings. In addition, mediation advocates have been consistent in urging greater use of the process to reduce debtors’ and claimants’ costs, bridge the jurisdictional and standing challenges that bankruptcies can pose, and offer claimants the opportunity to be heard and determine their own resolution of claims. At this point, the relatively few …

The Times They Are A Changin' - Or Are They? An Update On Rule 114, Barbara Mcadoo, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

When Rule 114 of the General Rules of Civil Practice arrived on the Minnesota legal scene in July 1994, it took many attorneys by complete surprise. Even in Hennepin County, which has had a nonbinding arbitration program since 1984, some attorneys asked, "ADR? Is that short for Another Darn Requirement'?" Nearly two years later, now that most attorneys know that ADR is the acronym for "Alternative Dispute Resolution," it is time to take stock of Rule 114, to evaluate its influence on the practice of law and its impact on the courts.

This review is timely for another, very important …

The Thinning Vision Of Self-Determination In Court-Connected Mediation: The Inevitable Price Of Institutionalization?, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

Ethical codes for mediators describe party self-determination as “the fundamental principle of mediation,” regardless of the context within which the mediation is occurring. The definition of self-determination, however, is a matter of dispute. Based on a review of the debate surrounding the promulgation and revision of ethical codes for court-connected mediators in Florida and Minnesota, this Article demonstrates that a vision of self-determination anchored in party-centered empowerment is yielding to a vision that is more reflective of the norms and traditional practices of lawyers and judges, as well as the courts’ strong orientation to efficiency and closure of cases through …

The Thoughtful Integration Of Mediation Into Bilateral Investment Treaty Arbitration, Nancy A. Welsh, Andrea Kupfer Schneider

Nancy Welsh

While the current system of investment treaty arbitration has definitely improved upon the “gunboat diplomacy” used at times to address disputes between states and foreign investors, there are signs that reform is needed: states and investors increasingly express concerns regarding the costs associated with the arbitration process, some states refuse to comply with arbitral awards, other states hesitate to sign new bilateral investment treaties, and citizens have begun to engage in popular unrest at the prospect of investment treaty arbitration. As a result, both investors and states are advocating for the use of mediation to supplement investor-state arbitration. This Article …

The Abcs Of Adr: Making Adr Work In Your Court System, Nancy A. Welsh, Barbara Mcadoo

Nancy Welsh

So you are thinking about making Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) a part of your existing statewide judicial process-but you don't know how. You want to provide litigants with alternative ways to resolve their disputes, through processes such as mediation, arbitration, and summary jury trials. In fact, you have been experimenting with these processes on an ad hoc basis and have had quite a few successes. You think you could accomplish even more if you made ADR a routine part of the judicial process. But you are cautious about the role that your state court system should take in promoting and …

The Law Of Bargaining, Russell Korobkin, Michael Moffitt, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

This brief essay, written for a symposium on The Emerging Interdisciplinary Cannon of Negotiation, describes three categories of rules which comprise the law of bargaining. First, common law limitations govern virtually all negotiators: the doctrines of fraud and misrepresentation limit the extent to which negotiators may deceive, and the doctrine of duress limits the extent to which bargainers can use superior bargaining power to coerce agreement. Second, context-specific laws sometimes circumscribe negotiating behavior in specific settings when general rules are less restrictive. Third, the conduct of certain negotiators is constrained by professional or organizational regulations inapplicable to the general public. …

The Place Of Court-Connected Mediation In A Democratic Justice System, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

A justice system, and the processes located within it, ought to deliver justice. That seems simple enough. But, of course, delivering justice is never so simple. Justice and the systems that serve it are the creatures of context.

This Article considers mediation as just one innovation within the much larger evolution of the judicial system of the United States. First, this Article outlines how the values of democratic governance undergird our traditional picture of the American justice system, presumably because the invocation of such values helps the system to deliver something that will be respected by the nation’s citizens as …

The Current Transitional State Of Court-Connected Adr, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

Article Extract:

Obviously, there is much to commend in court-connected mediation and what it offers to people caught up in disputes. With the help of mediators, parties may find it more feasible to reflect on their legal and extra-legal needs, prioritize among these needs, engage in open and thoughtful conversation, develop integrative solutions, and even consider the mediators' dispassionate feedback regarding positions or expectations. Proponents of court-connected mediation can also point to a multitude of accomplishments. For example, and most strikingly, many cases settle in mediation.' For the vast majority of those cases, litigants express satisfaction with the process and …

Stepping Back Through The Looking Glass: Real Conversations With Real Disputants About Institutionalized Mediation And Its Value, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

This Article describes what a group of real disputants perceives as most valuable about agency-connected mediation before, soon after, and eighteen months after they participated in the process. The Article is based primarily upon qualitative data from in-depth interviews with parents and school officials who participated in special education mediation sessions. Though the specific context of these interviews is obviously important, these disputants and their disputes share many commonalities with disputants and disputes in other contexts and, as a result, these disputants' views have relevance for the broader field of mediation.

These interviews suggest that both before and after disputants …

Searching For A Sense Of Control: The Challenge Presented By Community Conflicts Over Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, Nancy A. Welsh, Barbara Gray

Nancy Welsh

The growth in the number of concentrated animal feeding operations ("CAFOs"), particularly those involved in swine production, has brought with it increased community concern and outright conflict in many communities across the United States.' Most commentators have focused upon anticipated outcomes to explain the contentiousness of CAFO-related disputes.2 Meanwhile, even though the social dynamics that contribute to the development and escalation of conflicts over CAFOs parallel those exhibited in other kinds of community conflicts, little research has systematically examined the social dynamics associated with CAFO conflicts. One exception to this deficiency is recent work conducted by a team of researchers …

Remembering The Role Of Justice In Resolution: Insights From Procedural And Social Justice Theories, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

It is surely a luxury, at this point in the field of dispute resolution, to be invited to identify those concepts that I view as absolutely essential to our canon. Borrowing a bit from Chris Guthrie's wine illustration, I think it is fair to suggest that today's presentations reveal a very impressive wine cellar, with many bottles of fine wine from which to choose. I will spotlight one part of this wine cellar, where concepts regarding procedural and social justice theories can be found. I will focus primarily on procedural justice but will also reference those theories of social justice …

Musings On Mediation, Kleenex, And (Smudged) White Hats, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

This Essay speculates on the global future of mediation. It anticipates that mediation’s popularity will continue to grow both in the U.S. and abroad particularly as courts continue to encourage and institutionalize the process. Meanwhile, the Essay acknowledges the existence and continuing development of a relatively small cadre of elite lawyers and retired judges who serve as private mediators in large, complex matters.

The Essay also raises concerns, though, regarding the current lack of clarity in the goals and procedural characteristics that define mediation. The Essay asserts that such lack of clarity invites abuse of the mediation privilege and exclusionary …

Mandatory Predispute Consumer Arbitration, Structural Bias, And Incentivizing Procedural Safeguards, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

Within the past several decades, there has been an explosion in the creation, institutionalization and use of “alternative” dispute resolution procedures. Mandatory predispute arbitration has generated the most controversy because it appears beset with structural bias. The recent cases of AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion and Compucredit Corp. v. Greenwood have raised additional concerns as the Supreme Court has announced that corporations can force consumers to arbitrate their private and statutory claims and give up their rights to pursue class relief. This Article begins by arguing that the Supreme Court’s enthusiastic embrace of mandatory predispute arbitration should be understood primarily …

Look Before You Leap And Keep On Looking: Lessons From The Institutionalization Of Court-Connected Mediation, Bobbi Mcadoo, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

This article will use the institutionalization of general civil mediation into the courts as a case study, with both hopeful and cautionary lessons for policy makers. This article will (1) examine the goals created for court-connected ADR; (2) assess to what extent court-connected mediation has achieved these goals, from the perspective of judges, lawyers, and parties; and (3) and propose reforms of court-connected mediation to better ensure the achievement of justice.

Making Deals In Court-Connected Mediation: What's Justice Got To Do With It?, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

When mediation was first introduced to the courts, the process was hailed as “alternative.” Mediation gave disputants the opportunity to discuss and resolve their dispute themselves; the role of the third party was to facilitate the disputants’ negotiations, not to dictate the outcome; and because the disputants were able to focus on their underlying interests in mediation, the process could result in creative, customized solutions. The picture of mediation is changing, however, as the process settles into its role as a tool for the resolution of personal injury, contract, and other nonfamily cases on the courts’ civil dockets. Attorneys dominate …

Introduction To Volume 5 Of The Yearbook On Arbitration And Mediation, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

Professor Welsh introduces Volume 5 of the Yearbook on Arbitration and Mediation.

Looking Down The Road Less Traveled: Challenges To Persuading The Legal Profession To Define Problems More Humanistically, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

This essay will focus on three factors that may help to explain why it seems to be so difficult for many lawyers to escape the confines of a narrow, legalistic framing of issues-or more poetically, why they may be predisposed against looking down "the road less traveled by." These factors should be taken into account as challenges to the widespread adoption of innovative, more humanistic approaches to lawyering. First, the essay will turn to research regarding the psyches and psychological needs of the people who choose to attend law school and become lawyers. Second, the essay will consider what is …

Is That All There Is? "The Problem" In Court-Oriented Mediation, Leonard L. Riskin, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

The alternative process of mediation is now well-institutionalized and widely (though not universally) perceived to save time and money and satisfy lawyers and parties. However, the process has failed to meet important aspirations of its early proponents and certain expectations and needs of one-shot players. In particular, court-oriented mediation now reflects the dominance and preferences of lawyers and insurance claims adjusters. These repeat players understand the problem to be addressed in personal injury, employment, contract, medical malpractice and other ordinary civil non-family disputes as a matter of merits assessment and litigation risk analysis. Mediation is structured so that litigation issues …

Integrating "Alternative" Dispute Resolution Into Bankruptcy: As Simple (And Pure) As Motherhood And Apple Pie?, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

Today, there can be little doubt that “alternative” dispute resolution is anything but alternative. Nonetheless, many judges, lawyers (and law students) do not truly understand the dispute resolution processes that are available and how they should be used. In the shadow of the current economic crisis, this lack of knowledge is likely to have negative consequences, particularly in those areas of practice such as bankruptcy and foreclosure in which clients, lawyers, regulators, and courts work under pressure, often with inadequate time and financial resources to permit careful analysis of procedural options. Potential negative effects can include: (1) impairment of a …

I Could Have Been A Contender: Summary Jury Trial As A Means To Overcome Iqbal's Negative Effects Upon Pre-Litigation Communication, Negotiation And Early, Consensual Dispute Resolution, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

With its recent decisions in Ashcroft v. Iqbal and Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, the Supreme Court may be intentionally or unintentionally “throwing the fight,” at least in the legal contests between many civil rights claimants and institutional defendants. The most obvious feared effect is reduction of civil rights claimants’ access to the expressive and coercive power of the courts. Less obviously, the Supreme Court may be effectively undermining institutions’ motivation to negotiate, mediate - or even communicate with and listen to - such claimants before they initiate legal action. Thus, the Supreme Court’s recent decisions have the potential to deprive …

Does Adr Really Have A Place On The Lawyer's Philosophical Map?, Barbara Mcadoo, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

For nearly two decades, proponents of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) have touted the advantages of institutionalizing ADR within the courts. The anticipated benefits have included: quicker settlements, better settlements, resolution which is less expensive for the courts and litigants, and greater litigant satisfaction with both the procedure and the outcome. Many state and federal courts have listened. Indeed, in nearly every state, at least one local state and/or federal court has incorporated ADR in some manner. In Minnesota, with the promulgation of Rule 114 of the Minnesota General Rules of Practice, the Minnesota Supreme Court has chosen to institutionalize ADR …

Disputants' Decision Control In Court-Connected Mediation: A Hollow Promise Without Procedural Justice, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

Professor Deborah Hensler suggests in the lead article of this Symposium issue that the courts' embrace of facilitative, interest-based mediation may have been ill-conceived. She argues that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that litigants are more satisfied with mediation than with adjudicative alternatives such as arbitration and trial. She also urges that there is sufficient evidence to show that litigants prefer processes that vest decision control in third parties. Both of these assertions are subject to challenge,' but this Comment will focus upon the significance of giving decision control to the disputants in consensual processes.

Using available research, this …

Do You Believe In Magic?: Self-Determination And Procedural Justice Meet Inequality In Court-Connected Mediation, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

Proponents of the “contemporary mediation movement” promised that parties would be able to exercise self-determination as they participated in mediation. When courts began to mandate the use of mediation, commentators raised doubts about the vitality of self-determination. Though these commentators also suggested a wide variety of reforms, few of their proposals have gained widespread adoption in the courts.

Ensuring the procedural justice of mediation represents another means to ensure self-determination. If mediation provides parties with the opportunity to exercise voice, helps them demonstrate that they have considered what each other had to say, and treats them in an even-handed and …

Court-Ordered Adr: What Are The Limits?, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

Increasingly, courts across the country are turning to non-judicial dispute resolution processes - "alternative dispute resolution" or "ADR" - to handle overwhelming caseloads.' Proponents of non-judicial processes state that ADR benefits courts and litigants by reducing the time between the filing and disposition of cases, saving judges' time so that they are available for the cases that really need them, saving money for the parties to the suit, and perhaps most importantly, increasing litigants' satisfaction with the manner in which their disputes are resolved.

A growing body of empirical evidence has begun to support the proponents' claims. A study of …

Community Conflicts Over Intensive Livestock Operations: How And Why Do Such Conflicts Escalate?, Charles W. Abdalla, John C. Becker, Ralph Hanke, Celia Cook-Huffman, Barbara Gray, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

Why do community groups and individuals oppose establishment of intensive scale livestock operations in communities? Why have established forms of economic activity become the pariah of rural communities across the nation? In December 1997, the Pennsylvania Senate passed Resolution 91. This article addresses the results of a research project funded by the state Department of Agriculture in response to Senate Resolution 91, directing the Secretary of Agriculture to develop a model of community dispute resolution to address community conflicts involving intensive livestock operations ("ILOs"). Specifically this article addresses project findings detailing why conflicts over ILOs arise and how they escalate.

Arbitration And Beyond: Avoiding Pitfalls In Drafting Dispute Resolution Clauses In Employment Contracts, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

Article Extract:

You've just helped a mid-sized company, Allwell Corp., to reach a settlement in an action brought by a disgruntled former employee. The CEO turns to you and says, "Even though I still believe that we didn't do anything wrong, I'm glad this lawsuit is over. I can't believe how much money and time we've wasted in defending ourselves. Now, how can we keep this from happening in the future? I've been reading about companies putting arbitration clauses in all kinds of contracts. I want to know whether we can require our employees to arbitrate and maybe even require …