Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Commons^™

What’S A Bottom Line?, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

During the life cycle of a case, lawyers start with vague and tentative bottom lines, and they develop more precise and confident bottom lines as the case progresses. People typically are not candid with others – and sometimes even with themselves – about their real walkaway point (or “trip wire”) for ending negotiations. Indeed, “bottom line” claims are standard negotiation gambits using wildly inflated numbers that experienced negotiators and mediators routinely assume to be false.

Batna May Be Less Important Than You Think – And Teach, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

When bargaining in the shadow of the law, the expected court outcome (aka BATNA value) is only part of the more important consideration for negotiators – their bottom lines.

What Users Say About Technology In Mediation: 2020 Sidra Survey, Part 3, Nadja Alexander, Allison Goh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In this post on the Kluwer Mediation Blog, the use and appreciation of technology in mediation among client users is analysed.

Lira Videos, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post collects lots of videos of presentations I gave about LIRA.

Batnas And The Emotional Pains From “Positional Negotiation", John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post describes the role of BATNAs in the “positional negotiation” game, pains that it causes people in many roles, and some remedies to avoid and reduce these pains. In this “game,” each side seeks to maximize its outcome by starting with extreme positions and then making a series of counteroffers. Each side concocts stories justifying their positions but everyone knows that these stories are exaggerations at best and fibs at worst. If you gave truth serum to the lawyers, they would admit that they don’t really believe their own arguments.

But they do it because “everybody does it.” It’s …

The Singapore Convention On Mediation: Supplying The Missing Piece Of The Puzzle For Dispute Resolution, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In late 2018, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to adopt the UN Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation and to make corresponding amendments to the Model Law on International Commercial Conciliation. The convention was named the Singapore Convention on Mediation (“Singapore Convention”) when it was signed by 46 countries on 7 August 2019, and will come into force on 12 September 2020. The Singapore Convention is meant to achieve for mediation what the New York Convention has done for international arbitration. Its future success is highly dependent on the sound application of its provisions by …

What Users Say About International Mediators And Mediation Institutions: Part 2, Nadja Alexander, Allison Goh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In this post on the Kluwer Mediation Blog, the key factors that influence users' choice of mediation institution and choice of the mediator are explored.

Batna’S Got To Go — And Here’S A Better Idea, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

BATNA et al. are examples of popular terms that are widely misunderstood. In particular, while BATNAs really are courses of action (like going to trial or making a deal with a different party), people often confuse them with the expected values of those courses of action (like the trial outcome or profit from a deal).

Mediate.Com Publishes “Seven Keys To Unlock Mediation’S Golden Age”, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

Mediate.com published a series entitled Seven Keys to Unlock Mediation’s Golden Age. The objective is to encourage discussion among stakeholders about navigating mediation’s best future. The seven keys are: Leadership, Data, Education, Profession, Technology, Government and Usage. Descriptions of each “key” has two to four short articles.

Resources For Teaching About Batna, Bottom Lines, And Lira, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

Practically every negotiation, mediation, and ADR survey course teaches students that they should figure out their BATNA when negotiating or mediating. This is much easier said than done. This post provides lots of resources to help faculty teach students about BATNAs and – more importantly – about bottom lines. For additional publications about these topics, see Sections 3.A and 5.

Decision-Making As An Essential Element Of Our Field, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post suggests that we think of our work as focused on process design, strategy, and decision-making in managing conflict. Our field seeks to help parties solve problems when they lack good (or sometimes any) practical dispute resolution options. This post describes such situations and identifies strategies to increase and improve parties’ decision-making.

The Evolving Concept Of Access To Justice In Singapore’S Mediation Movement, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article examines the key societal developments underpinning the growth of mediation in Singapore with the view to analysing the evolving conceptualisation of justice within mediation. The introduction of mediation corresponded with a shift from adversarial justice to an indigenous form of conciliatory justice, in which a respected mediator played an advisor role to the disputants and was trusted to ensure the fairness of the process. However, this trajectory was tempered by the need to ensure that Singapore mediation practice conformed with international practices concerning the protection of parties’ autonomy. The ambivalence concerning the mediator’s role has resulted in uncertainty …

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 …

The Coronavirus Crisis Provides An Opportunity To Adopt Better Systems For Licensing Lawyers Than The Bar Exam, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post discusses an ABA Journal article entitled, Bar Exam Does Little to Ensure Attorney Competence, Say Lawyers in Diploma Privilege State. It quotes a former Wisconsin State Bar president saying that “whether [Wisconsin law school graduates] passed a bar exam … has no bearing on their lawyering abilities or character” or ensures competency. They are “swords of Damocles” hanging over schools’ and students’ heads. They privilege some doctrinal courses and discourage students from taking practice-oriented courses because those courses will not help them pass the bar exam. Bar exams entrench a pedagogy based on memorization of a lot …

Mediation In Education For Foster Care, Anelise Powers

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

There are well over 400,000 children in foster care. Education can improve the well-being of foster children in critical development stages of life and support their economic success in adulthood. In recent years, the law has given greater priority to the education of foster children, and foster children are often eligible for additional services. However, a common trend in foster care research is that foster children, though eligible, do not always receive the services created to assist them. This paper will explore how improving mediation related to education and foster care can help maximize the impact of efforts to improve …

Compelling Parties To Mediate Investor-State Disputes: No Pressure, No Diamonds?, James M. Claxton

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

There was nothing preordained about arbitration becoming shorthand for investor-state dispute settlement. The ICSID system was built on the assumption that disputing parties would choose conciliation to settle their disputes. Those expectations went unrealized as arbitration rose to prominence, and since that time institutions, parties, and academics have observed that facilitated negotiation could play a greater role in resolving investor-state disputes. A number of domestic court systems have made mediation part of the fabric of dispute resolution through incentives and compulsions to mediate. Drawing on this experience, this manuscript considers how obstacles to the uptake of investor-state mediation might be …

Strategic Apologies In Medical Malpractice Mediation, Brittany Norman

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Mistakes happen, even in a field as serious and careful as medicine. As a result, some patients are left with unexpected results from their medical procedures. Once hospitals inform patients of medical mistakes or the patients inform the hospital, the patients' cases are moved to the legal realm, where they are viewed as a liability. This shift causes the patient to feel as though the hospital does not recognize him or her and prevents doctors from apologizing to their patients, despite their desire to do so. In an attempt to apologize without vulnerability to liability, medical professionals are sometimes instructed …

Aging Out Arbitration For Wrongful Death Suits In Nursing Homes, Courtney Dyer

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The first section of this article will discuss the significance of removing arbitration agreements from wrongful death claims and implementing mediation instead. The second section will detail the background of arbitration clauses in nursing homes. The third section will review state acts that have opposed the use of arbitration agreements for wrongful death claims in nursing homes. The fourth section will analyze cases that have challenged arbitration agreements in nursing homes for wrongful death claims. The fifth section will propose compulsory mediation and multi-tiered dispute resolution clauses as substitutes for arbitration clauses. Finally, the sixth section will consider potential objections …

No Money, Mo’ Problems: The Attitudes And Experiences Of Homeowners In Default, Tracy Douglas

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article discusses differences in foreclosure law, consumer protection, and mediation programs. Then, it will summarize relevant research on the topic of homeowners’ attitudes, financial knowledge, economic hardships, causes of default, and effectiveness of representation. Next, this article will outline the study’s design and methodology followed by the results from the data produced by the study. Then, the results will be analyzed. Finally, policy recommendations and reforms supported by the study’s evidence will be discussed.

The Next New Normals – In General, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

The covid pandemic was a shock wave that reverberated for several years, and we still are feeling the effects. During the crisis period, we developed routines of sheltering in place, physical distancing, communicating electronically, and working from home, among other things. This post speculated about what that new normal might be like in many domains of life after the pandemic ends. It referred to this as the “normal new normal” (NNN) in contrast to the “crisis new normal” (CNN) for the duration of the crisis. It speculated that routines developed during the CNN period may have long-lasting effects during the …

Dispute Prevention And Early Dispute Resolution Framework, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post explains how lawyers can help clients use dispute prevention and early dispute resolution procedures, and it provides a general framework including dispute prevention.

Early Dispute Resolution Processes, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post describes planned early dispute resolution, lawyering with planned early negotiation, pre-suit mediation, and planned early two-stage and multi-stage mediation.

Lira @ Cpr, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post summarizes presentations, data collected, and discussion in a program of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR). The authors of the LIRA book conducted a survey of the attendees, and the post presents results of the survey. It provides nuanced discussions about how practitioners calculate BATNA values and bottom lines.

Covid-19 And Conflicts: The Health Of Peace Processes During A Pandemic, Lisa K. Dicker, C. Danae Paterson

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

This Article reviews the status of selected contemporary peace processes in the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak and explores some of the initial effects that the pandemic has had on those processes. The Article first provides an overview of the 20th and 21st century trend toward internationalized peace processes. Then, it introduces several contemporary mediation efforts that were ongoing at the onset of the pandemic and examines the early impacts of COVID-19 on those peace processes. In so doing, the Article identifies instances where actors have exploited the pandemic and peace processes where momentum has shrunk under COVID-19. …

Moving Us Courts Online, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post provides a summary compiled by Paul Embley of the National Center for State Courts about

The Law Can Be Dangerous To Lawyers’ Mental Health, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

The legal system sometimes provides important benefits such as helping people solve difficult problems, making institutions function properly, and promoting justice. But the process needed to achieve these goals often is extremely stressful for litigants. Not only do parties suffer stress, but also do lawyers, law students, and law professors. So we all need to take care of ourselves and others.

How To Calculate And Use Batnas And Bottom Lines With Lira, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This blog post provides an overview of the book, Litigation Interest and Risk Assessment: Help Your Clients Make Good Litigation Decisions, which I co-authored with Michaela Keet and Heather Heavin. The book describes how practitioners can (1) avoid common decision-making errors in litigation, (2) anticipate likely court outcomes, (3) communicate with clients about what’s most important to them, (4) help them make better decisions, (5) negotiate and mediate more effectively, and (6) learn about technological tools to help make decisions in litigation.

Instead of focusing only on the value of the best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA), the …

Eviction Mediation: An Intentional Conversation Followed By Five More, Noam Ebner, Sharon Press

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Disrupting The Eviction Crisis With Conflict Resolution Strategies, Deborah Thompson Eisenberg, Noam Ebner

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Mediating Disputes That Divide Communities: What Constitutes “Success”?, Joseph B. Stulberg

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.