Law Commons^™

Real Practice Systems Annotated Bibliography, John Lande

Faculty Publications

Real Practice Systems (RPS) theory holds that practitioners’ practice systems are based on their personal histories, values, goals, motivations, knowledge, and skills as well as the parties and the cases in their work. RPS analysis can be used in many dispute resolution roles such as mediator, advocate in mediation, negotiator, and litigator generally. In mediation, practitioners develop categories of cases, parties, and behavior patterns that lead them to design routine procedures and strategies for dealing with recurring challenges before, during, and after mediation sessions.

RPS theory is the culmination of much of the work in my scholarly career. The bibliography …

Real Mediation Systems To Help Parties And Mediators Achieve Their Goals, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

This article argues that it is time for a paradigm shift in our current general mediation theory because of numerous problems. Our current theory is incomplete at best and seriously misleading at worst. The traditional mediation models are oversimplified, poorly mapping onto the reality of practice. They combine multiple elements that are not necessarily correlated. Many practitioners ignore them because they are confusing or not helpful. People do not understand the theoretical meanings because the terms are not consistent with commonly understood language. Arguments about what is or is not real or good mediation have spawned unhelpful ideological divisions in …

Measuring "Access To Justice" In The Rush To Digitize, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

Access to Justice (A2J) is the hot topic of the day, energizing Twitter and judges alike. Meanwhile, professors and policymakers join in song, singing the praises of online dispute resolution (ODR) as means for expanding A21. This is because ODR uses technology to allow for online claim diagnosis, negotiation, and mediation without the time, money, and stress of traditional court processes. Indeed, courts are now moving traffic ticket, condominium, landlord/tenant, personal injury, debt collection, and even divorce claims online. The hope is that online triage and dispute resolution systems will provide means for obtaining remedies for self-represented litigants (SRLs) and …

Beyond International Commercial Arbitration? The Promise Of International Commercial Mediation, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

Although international commercial arbitration has long been the preferred means of resolving cross-border business disputes, the international corporate community has become increasingly concerned about increasing costs, delays and procedural formalities. As a result, parties are looking for other means of resolving cross-border business disputes. One of the more popular alternatives is mediation. Advocates of mediation extol its many benefits, including its ability to resolve disputes more quickly and with fewer costs and formalities than other alternatives. However, very little research exists on how mediation operates in the international commercial context. This Essay therefore considers whether and to what extent international …

Confronting Adr Agreements' Contract/No-Contract Conundrum With Good Faith, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

This Article explores the intricate problem, or conundrum, of enforcing "Alternative Dispute Resolution ('ADR') agreements" that require mediation or other non-binding dispute resolution procedures. Although public policy supports ADR, courts' inadequate analysis of ADR agreements is threatening their vitality. Instead of properly considering the flexible nature of these agreements, courts assume formalist contract or no-contract conclusions similar to those they impose on what Professor Charles Knapp has termed "contracts to bargain." ADR agreements and other contracts to bargain pose enforcement problems because they require parties' cooperation without specifying what cooperation means or how to enforce such flexible duties. This Article …

Listening To Experienced Users, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

In response to concerns about poor-quality mediation services in commercial cases, the Section of Dispute Resolution recently established a Task Force to develop realistic proposals to increase the quality and use of commercial mediation. As an initial step, the Task Force on Improving Mediation Quality conducted focus groups with experienced mediation users. This article summarizes key findings from the initial sets of focus groups. We found that focus group participants have nuanced understandings of the mediation process, their role in it, and the qualities they want in a mediator. In general, focus group participants want better access to information about …

Confidentiality In Arbitration: Beyond The Myth, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

Many people assume that arbitration is private and confidential. But is that assumption accurate? This article is the first to explore that question in the important context of whether arbitration communications can be discovered and admitted into evidence in other legal proceedings - a question that is just beginning to show up in the cases. It first surveys the federal and state statutory and case law, finding that arbitration communications in fact are generally discoverable and admissible. It then considers the normative desirability of discovering and admitting arbitration communications evidence, concluding that the free discovery and admissibility of arbitration communications …

Damages: Using A Case Study To Teach Law, Dispute Resolution, And Lawyering , Melody Richardson Daily, Chris Guthrie, Leonard L. Riskin

Faculty Publications

Seven law school faculty members and one practicing attorney recently developed and taught a wholly new kind of law course based on an already published case study, Damages: One Family's Legal Struggles in the World of Medicine, by Barry Werth, an investigative reporter who spent several years researching to write the book. Damages, an in-depth account of a medical malpractice case, presents the perspectives of the injured family, the defendant physician, the lawyers, and the three mediators. In this Symposium Introduction, the authors provide a summary of Werth's book, explain why they decided to create a course based on his …

The Sound Of Dust Settling: A Response To Residual Criticisms Of The Uma, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

The Uniform Mediation Act has gone to the states for consideration after about five years of research, drafting, and vetting, and ultimately, overwhelming support by the American Bar Association, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, most major dispute resolution professional organizations and service providers, and many if not most leading dispute scholars. Despite this support, concerns about the UMA still continue to echo from its drafting. Professor Brian Shannon's criticisms largely echo these discussions, and in this article I seek to respond to some of them - after first extending my greatest appreciation to Professor Shannon for …

Ending A Mud Bowl: Defining Arbitration’S Finality Through Functional Analysis, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

The Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and Uniform Arbitration Act (UAA), on the state level, prescribe a nearly identical procedural and remedial scheme for promoting independent, self-contained arbitration. To that end, both acts curtail courts' review of arbitration awards, by limiting the grounds for vacating awards to those aimed at ensuring only basic procedural fairness. Nonetheless, seemingly "pro-arbitration" impulses have driven some courts' eager application, or misapplication, of the FAA/UAA statutory scheme to enforce dispute resolution agreements that reject the acts' limited review prescriptions. This Article tackles this arguable abuse of the FAA/UAA scheme, by proposing a functional analysis for defining …

Getting The Faith: Why Business Lawyers And Executives Believe In Mediation, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

Do you believe in mediation? That may seem like an odd question. Normally one thinks of ‘believing in‘ (or having faith in) things like magic, God, or the market. These are typically things that are beyond verifiable human knowledge (such as magic and God) and/or deeply held values (such as whether the market is a better mechanism than government for managing the flow of goods and services). At first blush, one might not think that mediation would fall into either category. There have been numerous empirical studies about many different aspects of mediation, so one can confidently say, for example, …

Toward More Sophisticated Mediation Theory, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

In the lead article in this symposium, Professor Jeffrey Stempel provides a very thoughtful analysis of the mediation field. He focuses on the debate over facilitative and evaluative mediation and he is critical of many of the arguments made by proponents of facilitative mediation. I have expressed some similar concerns, and I generally agree with his analysis (with a quibble here and there). I do think that the facilitation-evaluation debate has been productive (though admittedly wearisome), and that proponents of facilitative mediation deserve more credit than he gives them in his article.

Court Issues Major Ruling On Mediation Confidentiality, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

A prominent federal court judge has issued an important ruling on mediation confidentiality, one that promises to influence both doctrinal and legislative development.

The case is Olan v Congress Mortgage Co., 1999 WL 909731 (N.D.Cal.), and in it, federal Magistrate Judge Wayne Brazil ultimately compels testimony by a California mediator, despite California's categorical exclusion of evidence arising from mediations. The lengthy opinion is most scholarly, and well worth taking the time to read.

Choppy Waters, Richard C. Reuben, Nancy H. Rogers

Faculty Publications

The movement toward a uniform standard for confidentiality in mediation among the states is one that from the outset casts off into choppy waters, marked by pitching cross-currents of remarkable force.

A "Party Satisfaction" Perspective On A Comprehensive Mediation Statute, James Levin, Chris Guthrie

Faculty Publications

Mediation Statute, 13 Ohio St. J. on Disp. Resol. 885 (1998)

During the past fifteen years, the alternative dispute resolution movement has greatly altered the legal landscape. Courts, legislatures and administrative agencies have enacted more than 2000 laws dealing with mediation and other dispute resolution processes. The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) and the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution have recently formed a unique partnership to assess whether a model or uniform mediation statute might remedy some of the problems caused by the current patchwork of often confusing and conflicting mediation laws. The task …

The Lawyer Turns Peacemaker, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

No doubt millions of people and businesses have benefited from simpler, less stressful modes of dispute resolution. Moreover, ADR is primed for much greater growth, as witnessed by the breathtaking expansion of court-related programs, the rush of lawyers and nonlawyers alike to mediation training seminars, and the pledge of thousands of businesses and large law firms to consider ADR options. But the child born of necessity is still, at best, teetering between adolescence and adulthood. For all of its potential to reshape the ways problems are solved, it still shows a dark side-coercion, conflicts, competency issues and commercialism -that leaves …

Mediation Paradigms And Professional Identities: Can Mediators Activate A New Movement For Justice?, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

This article, written early in the modern ADR era, provided a framework for developing the mediation field. It begins by elaborating William Simon’s critique of the “ideology of advocacy.” Simon argues that the adversary system is supposed to foster values of individuality, autonomy, responsibility, and dignity, but it often undermines those values in practice. This article catalogs a “parade of horribles” experienced by disputants, attorneys, judges, and the public. These include unequal access to justice, procedural rules that frustrate substantive justice, a narrow set of available remedies, a game psychology undermines respect for law and justice, parties’ alienating experience in …