Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Commons^™

The Unfulfilled Promise Of Self-Determination In Court-Connected Mediation, Peter Reilly

Faculty Scholarship

In the context of mediation, party self-determination refers to the ability of disputants to have power, control, and autonomy in the process. There are numerous process design questions involved in running a mediation, no matter its subject matter. Consider just one example: “Should the mediation be conducted in-person, or virtually?” The answer to this question can have a profound impact on the direction and course of a mediation, including its outcome. Yet, in the context of court-connected mediation, disputing parties are not consistently provided the opportunity to give input on how such process design questions are resolved. In fact, these …

How To Be A Better Plea Bargainer, Cynthia Alkon, Andrea Kupfer Schneider

Faculty Scholarship

Preparation matters in negotiation. While plea bargaining is a criminal lawyer’s primary activity, the value of this skill is discounted by law schools and training programs. A systemic model can be used to improve plea bargaining skills. This Article offers a prep sheet for both prosecutors and defense attorneys and explains how each element of the sheet specifically applies to the plea bargaining context. The prep sheet is designed as a learning tool so that the negotiator can learn from the sheet and then make their own. The sheet highlights important considerations such as understanding the interests and goals of …

But Is It Good: The Need To Measure, Assess, And Report On Court-Connected Adr, Nancy A. Welsh

Faculty Scholarship

We know that very few civil matters reach disposition through trial—but what do we really know about how civil cases do reach disposition? What number of civil cases reach disposition through settlement? What number of civil cases reach settlement through court-connected “alternative” dispute resolution (ADR)? Do we know enough about the results of courtconnected ADR to be able to detect potential patterns of systemic discrimination? This Article examines what we know from federal and state court systems’ public reporting and finds: 1) only a minority of federal district courts and state court systems report regarding dispositions through settlement; 2) there …

When Less Is More: The Limitless Potential Of Limited Scope Representation To Increase Access To Justice For Low- To Moderate-Income Individuals, Kristy D'Angelo-Corker

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Adr And Access To Justice: Current Perspectives, Rory Van Loo, Ellen E. Deason, Michael Z. Green, Donna Shestowsky, Ellen Waldman

Faculty Scholarship

Access to justice is a broad topic, and we cannot cover everything. You will notice a few major omissions. Most notably, we are not going to emphasize consumer pre-dispute arbitration agreements. This is not because they are not important, but because much has been written and said on this topic, and it could easily swallow the whole discussion. Also, we are probably not going to say very much about restorative justice, and I am sure you will notice some other holes. We invite you to raise missing issues in your comments.

Let me start with a few opening remarks. We …

A Tort In Search Of A Remedy: Prying Open The Courthouse Doors For Legal Malpractice Victims, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

Black's Law Dictionary defines “tort” as a civil wrong for which a remedy may be obtained. In examining both the economics and jurisprudence related to legal malpractice, the article discusses why the “remedy” portion of this definition is unavailable for many victims of legal malpractice. This discussion considers the different stages of a legal malpractice case, including the challenges that injured persons face in retaining experienced counsel to represent them, the anatomy of the legal malpractice case, and the difficulties in collecting judgements or settlements. The discussion will consider how “capture” and “judicial bias” contribute to the “disappearing legal malpractice …

The Role Of Language Interpretation In Providing A Quality Mediation Process, Alexandra Carter, Shawn Watts

Faculty Scholarship

This paper focuses on the role of language in mediation and the challenges multiple language fluencies bring to the practice. Beginning with a discussion of the process and ethics of mediation as a form of alternative dispute resolution, as distinct from other forms of dispute resolution including arbitration, the paper shifts to consider the importance of language. Language, and more specifically interpretation, plays a central role in the integrity of the mediation process and the quality of its outcomes. Each stage of mediation requires the participants and the mediator understand one another to ensure effective communication and a quality process. …

Mindfulness, Emotions, And Mental Models: Theory That Leads To More Effective Dispute Resolution, Peter Reilly

Faculty Scholarship

At the core of nearly all great negotiators, mediators, lawyers, and leaders is a person who has learned to connect with other people, that is, to build relationships of trust, cooperation, and collaboration. This Article argues that when people learn a sense of "self" and "other" through both theoretical and practical knowledge and understanding of mindfulness and human emotion, connections with others are more likely to be made, and important relationships are more likely to be built.

My goal, then, is to begin thinking about how one might bring mindfulness and emotions from the “mind level” to what human relations …

Negotiations Goes To War, Charles J. Dunlap Jr., Paula B. Mccarron

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Lawyers, Non-Lawyers And Mediation: Rethinking The Professional Monopoly From A Problem-Solving Perspective , Jacqueline Nolan-Haley

Faculty Scholarship

Mediation is a big business today that is practiced by lawyers and non-lawyers, and is closely related to the business of law. Lawyers have a long-standing monopoly on the law business and do not look favorably on sharing their power with nonlawyers. This phenomenon is odd because it occurs at the same time that the legal profession is beginning to embrace a new ethic of problem-solving that honors the values of collaboration and power-sharing among professionals in multiple disciplines. Lawyers protect their professional monopoly through the unauthorized practice of law ("UPL") doctrine that limits the practice of law to licensed …

Informed Consent In Mediation: A Guiding Principle For Truly Educated Decisionmaking , Jacqueline Nolan-Haley

Faculty Scholarship

Informed consent has a central role to play in mediation. Without it, mediation's promises of autonomy and self-determination are empty. This Article has given the theoretical and policy justifications for a reform of mediation practice that honors the principle of informed consent. I have argued for a contextualized approach that takes into account mediation's location, the voluntariness of the parties' consent, and their representational status. This kind of analysis will lead to a more informed practice of mediation decisionmaking than exists currently and provide a perspective that can more prudently guide a mediator's conduct. The proposed approach promotes greater fairness …

Lawyers, Clients, And Mediation , Jacqueline Nolan-Haley

Faculty Scholarship

That the growth of mediation practice is changing the practice of law is obvious. The inability of many lawyers to understand the conceptual differences between adversarial lawyering and mediation practice strongly suggests the need to develop a theory of "good" representational mediation practice that takes into account competing client interests. On the one hand, lawyers must encourage client voice and participation. At the same time, however, the demands of professionalism require that lawyers guide their clients toward responsible decisionmaking. Representational lawyering in mediation may involve a number of distinct and traditional lawyering functions-- client counseling, negotiation, evaluation and advocacy. In …

Disputing Through Agents: Cooperation And Conflict Between Lawyers In Litigation, Ronald J. Gilson, Robert H. Mnookin

Faculty Scholarship

Do lawyers facilitate dispute resolution or do they instead exacerbate conflict and pose a barrier to the efficient resolution of disputes? A distinctive characteristic of our formal mechanisms of conflict resolution is that clients carry on their disputes through lawyers. Yet, at a time when the role of lawyers in dispute resolution has captured not only public but political attention, social scientists have remained largely uninterested in the influence of lawyers on the disputing process. This is not to say that academics have ignored the growth in civil litigation in the United States. Economists have developed an extensive literature that …

What Happens When Mediation Is Institutionalized?: To The Parties, Practitioners, And Host Institutions, James J. Alfini, John Barkai, Robert Baruch Bush, Michele Hermann, Jonathan Hyman, Kimberlee Kovach, Carol B. Liebman, Sharon Press, Leonard Riskin

Faculty Scholarship

The Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the Association of American Law Schools presented a program, at the 1994 AALS Conference, on the institutionalization of mediation – through courtconnected programs and otherwise. The topic is an important one, because this phenomenon has become increasingly common in recent years. Moreover, the topic seemed especially appropriate for the 1994 program, since Florida – the host state for the conference – was one of the first states to adopt a comprehensive statute providing for court-ordered mediation (at the trial judge's option) in civil disputes of all kinds. The move toward institutionalizing mediation has raised …

Teaching Mediation As A Lawyering Role Developments, Jacqueline Nolan-Haley

Faculty Scholarship

The growth of the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) movement has generated an increased interest in the study and practice of mediation as a nonadversarial method of conflict resolution. With mediation, individuals settle their disputes using a neutral third party who has no power to impose a settlement. Historically, mediation has been widely neglected in legal education, and-except for those involved in the labor field-lawyers have not practiced it. Recent gains in visibility have not necessarily resulted in widespread acceptance of mediation. In fact, mediation has even been openly resisted by some members of the legal profession.