Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Commons^™

Qualification Requirements Of Mediators, Norma Jeanne Hill

Journal of Dispute Resolution

As the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution spreads, the question of who is qualified to provide mediation services becomes ever more important. In determining which selection methods to use in choosing qualified mediators for a particular court or program, attention should be paid to the effectiveness of each specific method, the cost to use it, and whether the method unduly discriminates against individuals of different cultural groups or with varying mediation styles. Just like any other selection procedure in the world of employment, a mediator qualification requirement ought to be analyzed in terms of effectiveness, cost, and discriminatory effects before …

A Tale Of Two Cities: Day Labor And Conflict Resolution For Communities In Crisis, Lela P. Love, Cheryl B. Mcdonald

Articles

Through the lens of Glen Cove and Agoura Hills, two cities facing social crisis revolving around a shaping point, this article addresses the importance of government and key interest groups developing approaches to conflict that will best move society forward while limiting the danger and costs of discord. This "tale of two cities" describes two remarkably similar situations involving day laborers and argues that one community’s choice of mediation after the commencement of litigation resulted in outcomes that addressed and satisfied a wider range of constituency interests than those realized by the community that chose litigation alone.

The Top Ten Reasons Why Mediators Should Not Evaluate, Lela P. Love

Articles

The ten reasons outlined in this article demonstrate that a mediator’s giving advice, making assessments and stating opinions — particularly where the mediator presses parties to accept a particular opinion, outcome or assessment — are inconsistent with the role of a mediator.

Alternative Dispute Resolution In The Federal Tax Arena: The Internal Revenue Service Opens Its Doors To Mediation, Tonya M. Scherer

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This Comment examines the development of the new tax mediation program, its procedures and application, and its current status. Part II reviews the Appeals process leading up to and including the choice of an avenue to resolution of taxpayer disputes other than litigation. Part III explores the new mediation program including the scope of the cases allowed, the requirements for initiating the process and the procedures for implementing the program. Part IV discusses the policy reasons behind the IRS' implementation of the specific procedures and criteria into the new tax mediation program. Finally, Part V is an update of the …

Thinking Of Mediation As A Complex Adaptive System, J.B. A. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article uses my work on complex adaptive systems to think about how litigation and mediation differ in terms of adaptive qualities, suggesting that mediation is indeed a more adaptive mode of dispute resolution in certain contexts.

Messenger As The Medium Of Communication: The Use Of Interpreters In Mediation, The, Ileana Dominguez-Urban

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Merely adding one more person to the mediation process adds greater complexity to the dynamics of the mediation than most lawyers and mediators would anticipate. As Part I of this article indicates, mediators must understand the complexities of interpreted mediation because the need for interpreted mediation is increasing due to national demographics, legal requirements, and international market forces. Part II examines the skills needed for interpretation and the probable structure of an interpreted mediation. Part III considers who might possess those interpretation skills as well as the additional skills required of one who will serve as an auxiliary to the …

Beyond Formalism And False Dichotomies: The Need For Institutionalizing A Flexible Concept Of The Mediator's Role, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Related to the problem of the false dichotomy is the formalist application of the either/or construct. If, for example, one adopts as a first premise the view that mediation is by definition non-evaluative, and then rigidly applies this premise to issues of appropriate mediator behavior, the result is a formalist system that permits mediators little or no leeway to depart from the non-evaluative style. This sort of regulatory regimen may satisfy the non-evaluative ethos of some mediation scholars, but it does so at the risk of becoming a rigid system that prevents mediators from taking practical actions most appropriate to …

Toward Uniform Standards Of Conduct For Mediators Symposium: The Lawyer's Duties And Responsibilities In Dispute Resolution, John D. Feerick

Faculty Scholarship

It can no longer be doubted that alternative dispute resolution ("ADR") as a substitute for court-based litigation is growing in appeal. The high costs, adversarial nature, and time of traditional litigation have led to the development and popularity of other dispute resolution alternatives. ADR is making substantial inroads into the legal mainstream and is increasingly used in a wide variety of contexts by courts; federal, state, and local governments; businesses and private individuals. According to a recent survey conducted by the National Institute for Dispute Resolution, twenty-eight state courts now have mandatory, non-binding arbitration programs; more than half of the …

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 …

Freeing The Parties From The Law: Designing An Interest And Rights Focused Model Of Landlord/Tenant Mediation, Joel Kurtzberg, Jamie Henikoff

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In this article, we point out two fundamental flaws of the critique. First, the critique compares mediation to an idealized view of adjudication instead of comparing mediation to its real-life alternatives. Second, it takes a narrow view of the role of law in mediation, erroneously assuming that mediators must either ignore the law or impose it on the parties. Part I of this article spells out the critics' claim that mediation generally harms the poor and disempowered by failing to adequately incorporate formal legal protections into the process. Part II examines the critique as it is applied to the landlord-tenant …

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 …

Danger-Inequality Of Resources Present: Can The Environmental Mediation Process Provide An Effective Answer, Elaine Smith

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The environmental dispute resolution field has grown rapidly since its advent in 1973, when two mediators, Gerald Cormick and Jane McCarthy, undertook the first documented attempt to settle an environmental dispute.' Since this initial effort, the use of mediation in environmental disputes has grown rapidly, leading to the continual evolution and improvement of the field. Despite this progress, mediation in environmental disputes remains as it began: a hotly contested issue, with prominent and influential commentators vigorously debating whether it is an appropriate device to resolve environmental disputes

Adr Toolbox: The Highwire Art Of Evaluation, Marjorie Corman Aaron

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Many mediators are uncomfortable with the idea of discussing or presenting evaluations. However, when parties reach an impasse, they often want the mediator to play an active role. In these cases, responsible use of evaluation is completely consistent with the goals of mediation. Mediators should provide an evaluation only if there is an insurmountable settlement gap that arises from the parties’ widely divergent views of what will happen if the case doesn’t settle. Evaluation is not a substitute for other essential mediation tools. It is a last step, but in many cases skipping that step means missing the sole opportunity …

Understanding Mediators' Orientations, Strategies, And Techniques: A Grid For The Perplexed, Leonard L. Riskin

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article begins with a review of previous efforts to categorize mediation and their shortfalls, including the lack of any widely-shared comprehensive method for describing the various approaches to mediation practice. The Article then offers a new "grid" system for classifying mediator orientations, strategies, and techniques and describes the potential utility of the grid, particularly its effectiveness in selecting mediators.

"Evaluative" Mediation Is An Oxymoron, Kimberlee K. Kovach, Lela P. Love

Articles

An essential characteristic of mediation is facilitated negotiation wherein the mediator remains neutral throughout the process. Inconsistent with this role is an evaluative mediator who assesses the strengths and weaknesses of legal claims, proposes settlement terms, pushes parties to accept a particular settlement, and predicts court outcomes or the impact of not settling. A mediator’s assessment invariably favors one side over the other and jeopardizes neutrality. This article argues that mediation should stand as a distinct and clear-cut alternative to the evaluative and frequently highly-adversarial adjudicatory processes and that mediators should not evaluate.

We Can Settle This Here Or Downtown: Mediation Or Arrest For Domestic Violence Calls - Eagleston V. Guido, Dale T. Smith

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Mediation policies may serve as a way for victims of equal protection violations to be compensated if a state worker invokes the defense of qualified immunity to avoid liability.' However, if the state worker is a police officer and is "following orders" by acting under a custom or policy devised or enforced by a superior, a party might be able to claim an equal protection violation under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and sue the officer's superior.' A police officer's use of qualified immunity came into question in Eagleston v. Guido.' In Eagleston, the use of mediation practices to deal with …

Drafting Mediation Privileges: Lessons From The Civil Justice Reform Act, Michael A. Perino

Faculty Publications

Mediation confidentiality provisions or privileges are now prevalent throughout the United States. Forty-one states have enacted some form of mediation privilege. As part of the Administrative Dispute Resolution Act of 1990, Congress enacted legislation to protect confidentiality in mediations involving federal agencies. An additional source for such provisions is the Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 (CJRA), which required each federal district court to implement a civil justice expense and delay reduction plan (Plan(s)) by the end of 1993. Those Plans seek to implement mechanisms designed to address causes of excessive expense and delay in the federal courts.

A number …

Mediation Privilege's Transition From Theory To Implementation: Designing A Mediation Privilege Standard To Protect Mediation Participants, The Process And The Public Interest, The, Alan Kirtley

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article will analyze the developing law of the mediation privilege. To begin with, the attributes and uses of the mediation process and the function of confidentiality in mediation will be examined. The existing legal means to protect mediation confidentiality, short of a privilege, will also be reviewed. Then an analysis of policy considerations underlying evidentiary privileges generally will be followed by an assessment of the theoretical underpinnings for a mediation privilege. Finally, a critique of the various forms taken by new mediation privilege statutes and rules will be undertaken. The State of Washington's mediation privilege statute 2 will serve …

Diversity Issues In Mediation: Controlling Negative Cultural Myths, Isabelle R. Gunning

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article (by a concerned supporter) explores this criticism of mediation. Part II surveys the critics who argue that mediation's informality and lack of procedure disadvantages members of minority groups and women. Part II then takes the next step that the critics have not taken, explaining how mediation could affect adversely disadvantaged groups. Part III suggests solutions to the problem which involve a greater level of mediator intervention than is generally accepted and defends these solutions.

Enforceability Of An Agreement To Submit To A Non-Arbitral Form Of Dispute Resolution: The Rise Of Mediation And Neutral Fact-Finding - Annapolis Professional Firefighters Local 1926 V. City Of Annapolis, The, Tim K. Klintworth

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Agreements between employers and unions frequently specify a form of alternate dispute resolution to be utilized in the event of a future dispute. Annapolis addresses the issue of the enforceability of a written agreement to submit future disputes to some form of non-arbitral resolution such as mediation or neutral-fact finding.

Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms: Experience In The United States, Whitmore Gray

Other Publications

The objective of this portion of our conference on judicial reform is to discuss means to promote swift and fair resolution of disputes. Although much of our discussion will center on reform of basic court systems and civil procedure in various countries, my particular focus is on alternatives to traditional institutions and techniques. These alternatives include a variety of what we might call "courtannexed" procedures, that is, procedures that occur during the course of traditional litigation. I will also consider, however, other procedures that might better be characterized as purely "private" techniques for resolving disputes—those that occur before or at …

Standards Of Conduct For Mediators, John D. Feerick

Faculty Scholarship

In 1992, the American Arbitration Association, the American Bar Association, and the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (SPIDR) formed a joint committee to develop a code of conduct for mediators. After more than two years of work, the committee completed and submitted Standards of Conduct for Mediators for approval to their respective associations. The purpose was to develop a set of standards that could serve as a general framework for mediators, providing them with a helpful tool in their practice. The standards were to be broad enough to cover all types of mediation and flexible enough to evolve over …

Public Health And Safety Hazards Versus Confidentiality: Expanding The Mediation Door Of The Multi-Door Courthouse, Arlin R. Thrush

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The public's interest in and use of alternative forms of dispute resolution has been in existence for hundreds of years.2 However, today's rejuvenated interest in alternative forms of dispute resolution can be traced to the late sixties Since that time, alternative forms of dispute resolution have been labeled the wave of the future. The growth of alternative forms of dispute resolution can be seen in the tremendous increase in programs offering dispute resolution services. In 1980, there were approximately one hundred dispute resolution programs located throughout the United States. Today, there are over four hundred dispute resolution programs available to …

What Happens When Mediation Is Institutionalized?: To The Parties, Practitioners And Host Institutions, Sharon Press

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 court-connected programs and otherwise. The topic is an important one, because this phenomenon has become increasingly common. 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 many questions, and …

Ethics: No One Ever Said It Would Be Easy: Bush's Contribution To Mediation Practice, Albie M. Davis

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The beauty of Robert Baruch Bush's research on ethics is that his conclusions grow out of the real life experiences of mediators.' Yes, his interpretation is influenced by his own biases, and yes, the Florida mediation scene, where he made his observations, is not a microcosm of the rest of the nation or the world; nevertheless, in spite of these limitations, he did a remarkable job of capturing the dilemmas that most mediators face.

Comparative Analysis Of Labor Mediation Using A Bargaining Strength Model, Alvin L. Goldman

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The comparison of different legal systems offers a number of analytical and research advantages, one of which is that it provides a laboratory for observing differences and similarities in the ways in which common regulatory and dispute resolution models operate in similar and dissimilar environments. This Essay uses that laboratory to illustrate how the bargaining strength model presented in Settling for More: Mastering Negotiation Strategies and Techniques can be applied in analyzing mediatory interventions and provide a better understanding of (a) how such interventions can be utilized most effectively, (b) when they are useful, (c) when they are superfluous, and …

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 …

Bush On Mediator Dilemmas, Joseph B. Stulberg

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Despite its richness, I believe that there are three features of the study that raise both conceptual and practical difficulties. They are: (1) its methodology for identifying ethical dilemmas; (2) its presumptions regarding the extent to which public policy can or should address some or all of the mediator's dilemmas; and (3) its applicability to mediator roles and dilemmas in contexts outside a court-referral system. I consider each of these features below.

Flames On The Wires: Mediating From An Electronic Cottage, Ian Macduff

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article reflects on a curiosity of modern life, in that it is a very preliminary comment on a kind of mediation that does not involve me moving beyond the desk where my computer is located. It is a mediator's parallel to armchair travelling, with the difference here being that the experience is not vicarious, though it is certainly remote.

Peer Mediation Programs: Teaching Students Alternatives To Violence, Brian Koy Harper

Journal of Dispute Resolution

With the ever-rising occurrence of violence' within schools2 and the high level of both student apathy and dropout rates, many people are wondering what, if anything, can be done to stem the tidal wave that seems about to crash our nation's schools upon the rocks of failure. Increasing security measures in schools, such as metal detectors,3 armed police guards, and locker searches, may prevent the violence,4 but will probably not alleviate the underlying causes.5