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2003

University of Missouri School of Law

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Uniform mediation act

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Law

Centuries Of Contract Common Law Can't Be All Wrong: Why The Uma's Exception To Mediation Confidentiality In Enforcement Proceedings Should Be Embraced And Broadened, Peter Robinson Jan 2003

Centuries Of Contract Common Law Can't Be All Wrong: Why The Uma's Exception To Mediation Confidentiality In Enforcement Proceedings Should Be Embraced And Broadened, Peter Robinson

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and House of Delegates of the American Bar Association recently approved the Uniform Mediation Act ("UMA") with an eye toward unifying the law of mediation confidentiality in the United States. Soon, numerous states and other organizations will consider modifying statutes, court rules, or professional standards to conform to the UMA. One of the important aspects of mediation confidentiality is how it applies when enforcing a mediated agreement.' In some jurisdictions, mediation confidentiality interferes with the application of contract law when enforcing a mediated agreement to produce absurd results. This article will …


Sound Of Dust Settling: A Response To Criticisms Of The Uma, The, Richard C. Reuben Jan 2003

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

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Continuing UMA "concerns," therefore, have a certain vestigial or residual character, often reflecting views taken in battles that were fought within the drafting sessions - sometimes fiercely - but which were incapable of producing a majority among the UMA drafters. 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 his willingness to be the "skunk in the parlor" of this symposium edition by generally aggregating those criticisms." In Part I, I give some of the unpublished history of …


Uniform Mediation Act And Official Comments Jan 2003

Uniform Mediation Act And Official Comments

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The provisions in this Act reflect the intent of the Drafters to further these public policies. The Drafters intend for the Act to be applied and construed in a way to promote uniformity, as stated in Section, and also in such manner as to: promote candor of parties through confidentiality of the mediation process, subject only to the need for disclosure to accommodate specific and compelling social interests, encourage the policy of fostering prompt, economical, and amicable resolution of disputes in accordance with principles of integrity of the mediation process, active party involvement, and informed self-determination by the parties, and …


Prohibiting Good Faith Reports Under The Uniform Mediation Act: Keeping The Adjudication Camel Out Of The Mediation Tent, Carol L. Izumi, Homer C. La Rue Jan 2003

Prohibiting Good Faith Reports Under The Uniform Mediation Act: Keeping The Adjudication Camel Out Of The Mediation Tent, Carol L. Izumi, Homer C. La Rue

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This symposium article examines a narrow slice of the Uniform Mediation Act - the prohibition on mediator communication to judges about a party's good faith participation or "problem" behavior in mediation.


Uma And The Uncitral Model Rule: An Emerging Consensus On Mediation And Conciliation, The, Jernej Sekolec, Michael B. Getty Jan 2003

Uma And The Uncitral Model Rule: An Emerging Consensus On Mediation And Conciliation, The, Jernej Sekolec, Michael B. Getty

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In this article, we describe how these two efforts have come together to forge an international consensus on mediation and conciliation. In Part I, we look at how some of the different ways that domestic nationals treat the confidentiality of conciliation communications. The disparity of these treatments leads to considerable uncertainty among parties to a conciliation. In Part II, we note the essential features of the UNCITRAL Model Law, and how it addresses this uncertainty through model rules that will harmonize international standards among adopting nations, at least on core issues, while at the same time preserving the flexibility that …


Introduction, David A. Hoffman Jan 2003

Introduction, David A. Hoffman

Journal of Dispute Resolution

My introduction to the issues that the Uniform Mediation Act seeks to resolve occurred about a dozen years ago when a senior partner at Hill & Barlow, the Boston law firm where I practiced for 17 years, came to me with a question. He wanted to know whether he could recommend mediation as a safe process for discussing some delicate tax issues that had arisen during the breakup of a business partnership. Evidently the partners had taken some aggressive positions on their partnership tax returns, and one of the big issues in the dissolution of the partnership was the allocation …


Dancing With The One That Brung Us - Why The Texas Adr Community Has Declined To Embrace The Uma, Brian D. Shannon Jan 2003

Dancing With The One That Brung Us - Why The Texas Adr Community Has Declined To Embrace The Uma, Brian D. Shannon

Journal of Dispute Resolution

I readily acknowledge that the UMA is a bold and noble project, and it is certainly the result of substantial effort and compromise. Indeed, I largely concur with the sentiment of Philip Harter that "[tihe UMA is the product of heroic effort that brought together many interests and perspectives to thrash out a workable framework for mediation." That being said, however, much of the Texas mediation community, of which I am a part, has largely opposed enactment of the UMA's framework for our state. As I have written previously, the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the State Bar of Texas …


Uma: Some Roads Not Taken, The, Joseph B. Stulberg Jan 2003

Uma: Some Roads Not Taken, The, Joseph B. Stulberg

Journal of Dispute Resolution

I do not want to overstate my claim. There is nothing in the UMA that precludes conducting a mediated conversation in a manner consistent with what I frame below as a "robust vision" of the mediator's role. The Act, however, does not provide sustained support for it and, more seriously, appears to license the type of intervener that I believe is inconsistent with basic process goals. Hence, I am conjecturing - though I do not believe it is "idle conjecturing" - as to how parties, representative, and the mediator shall conduct their mediation conference under the vision of mediation embedded …


Evaluation Of The Effect Of Court-Ordered Mediation And Proactive Case Management On The Pace Of Civil Tort Litigation In Lake County, Indiana, An, Jeffrey J. Dywan Jan 2003

Evaluation Of The Effect Of Court-Ordered Mediation And Proactive Case Management On The Pace Of Civil Tort Litigation In Lake County, Indiana, An, Jeffrey J. Dywan

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This author conducted a survey of mediators working with the courts in Lake County, Indiana in 1993-1994. At that time, thirty-four civil mediators were listed with the court administrator's office. The mediators were asked to track mediation cases for six months and to record the number of cases that had been referred to them for mediation, the number of cases actually mediated, the number settled, and the time to settlement after the referral to mediation