Litigation Commons^™

Massachusetts Community Mediation Center (Cmc) Grant Program: Fiscal Year 2025 Evaluation Report, Madhawa Palihapitiya, Karina Zeferino

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

The CMC Grant Program remains a vital statewide investment in equitable access to justice and community well-being in Massachusetts. In FY2025, the Commonwealth allocated $3,100,202 to the Program, with $2,376,002 awarded directly to 12 community mediation Centers for operational support, technical assistance, and participation in statewide initiatives. These funds continued to serve as the financial foundation of the community mediation system, accounting for half of Centers’ collective revenue and enabling them to leverage an additional $2,435,797 from private, municipal, state, and federal partners—demonstrating strong public return on state appropriations. Despite a funding reduction in FY2025, the Program generated …

Using Odr Platforms To Level The Playing Field: Improving Pro Se Litigation Through Odr Design, J.J. Prescott

Book Chapters

Court-connected ODR has already shown itself capable of dramatically improving access to justice by eliminating barriers rooted in the fact that courts traditionally resolve disputes only during certain hours, in particular physical places, and only through face-to-face proceedings. Given the centrality of courthouses to our system of justice, too many Americans have discovered their rights are too difficult or costly to exercise. As court-connected ODR systems spread, offering more inclusive types of dispute resolution services, people will soon find themselves with the law and the courts at their fingertips. But robust access to justice requires more than just raw, low-cost …

Dispute Resolution In Pandemic Circumstances, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

The peaceful resolution of disputes is among the most important earmarks of a regime attached to the rule of law. Even in countries in which, for one reason or another, courts do not work especially well, civil peace is of paramount importance. The absence of effective institutions for the administration of justice between and among private parties would spell a high degree of social disorder.

Even in the absence of a crisis such as we are experiencing, justice systems face a number of challenges in this day and age. Does a jurisdiction have a sufficient number of persons qualified to …

... Because "Yes" Actually Means "No": A Personalized Prescriptive To Reactualize Informed Consent In Dispute Resolution

Marquette Law Review

None.

Adr And Access To Justice: Current Perspectives, Ellen E. Deason, Michael Z. Green, Donna Shestowsky, Rory Van Loo, 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 Comprehensive Theory Of Civil Settlement, J. J. Prescott, Kathryn E. Spier

Articles

A settlement is an agreement between parties to a dispute. In everyday parlance and in academic scholarship, settlement is juxtaposed with trial or some other method of dispute resolution in which a third-party factfinder ultimately picks a winner and announces a score. The “trial versus settlement” trope, however, represents a false choice; viewing settlement solely as a dispute-ending alternative to a costly trial leads to a narrow understanding of how dispute resolution should and often does work. In this Article, we describe and defend a much richer concept of settlement, amounting in effect to a continuum of possible agreements between …

The Customer's Nonwaivable Right To Choose Arbitration In The Securities Industry, Jill I. Gross

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Arbitration has been the predominant form of dispute resolution in the securities industry since the 1980s. Virtually all brokerage firms include predispute arbitration agreements (PDAAs) in their retail customer contracts, and have successfully fought off challenges to their validity. Additionally, the industry has long mandated that firms submit to arbitration at the demand of a customer, even in the absence of a PDAA.

More recently, however, brokerage firms have been arguing that forum selection clauses in their agreements with sophisticated customers (such as institutional investors and issuers) supersede firms’ duty to arbitrate under FINRA Rule 12200. Circuit courts currently are …

Therapeutic Jurisprudence, David Wexler

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Good Pretrial Lawyering: Planning To Get To Yes Sooner, Cheaper, And Better, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

Although the ostensible purpose for pretrial litigation is to prepare for trial, such preparation is inextricably intertwined with negotiation because the expected trial outcome is a major factor affecting negotiation. Indeed, since most litigated cases are settled, good litigators prepare for negotiation at least as much as trial. The lawyers interviewed for this article, who were selected because of their good reputations, described how they prepare for both possibilities. They recommend taking charge of their cases from the outset, which includes getting a clear understanding of clients and their interests, developing good relationships with counterpart lawyers, carefully investigating the cases, …

Justice Deferred Is Justice Denied: We Must End Our Failed Experiment In Deferring Corporate Criminal Prosecutions, Peter Reilly

Faculty Scholarship

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), deferred prosecution agreements are said to occupy an “important middle ground” between declining to prosecute on the one hand, and trials or guilty pleas on the other. A top DOJ official has declared that, over the last decade, the agreements have become a “mainstay” of white collar criminal law enforcement; a prominent criminal law professor calls their increased use part of the “biggest change in corporate law enforcement policy in the last ten years.”

However, despite deferred prosecution’s apparent rise in popularity among law enforcement officials, the article sets forth the argument …

Institutionalization Of Alternative Dispute Resolution By The State Of California , Bruce Monroe

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments In Alternative Dispute Resolution , Lee R. Petillon

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mediation Of Marital Disputes Before It Is Too Late: A Proposal For Premarital Contract Provisions For Mediation Of Disputes Within The Intact Family And At Separation , Robert F. Cochran Jr.

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mass Procedures As A Form Of "Regulatory Arbitration" - Abaclat V. Argentine Republic And The International Investment Regime, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

This article takes a unique and intriguing look at the issues presented by Abaclat, considering the legitimacy of mass procedures from a regulatory perspective and using new governance theory to determine whether a new form of regulatory arbitration is currently being developed. In so doing, the discussion describes the basic parameters of regulatory litigation and analyzes the special problems that arise when regulatory litigation is used in the transnational context, then transfers those concepts into the arbitral realm. This sort of analysis, which is entirely novel as a matter of either public or private law, will shape future inquiries regarding …

Judicial Policing Of Consumer Arbitration , Edward A. Dauer

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Adhesive consumer arbitration agreements pose questions that go beyond the problems of adhesion contracting generally. This essay describes why standard-form consumer arbitration requirements may be particularly troublesome. Despite its superficial neutrality, arbitration between individual consumers and business entities may be systematically more favorable to the business entities. The rules of arbitration law, however, inhibit effective judicial policing of the consequences of those inequalities. The federal sources of arbitration law further diminish the ability of state-based contract law to police the more subtle abuses. The result is a particularly difficult jurisprudential problem with a specially weakened legal solution. This essay offers, …

The Dispute Settlement Understanding Of The Wto Agreement: An Inadequate Mechanism For The Resolution Of International Trade Disputes, Sean P. Feeney

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The 1994 signing of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement marked the initiation of the most far-reaching and comprehensive international agreement on trade in the history of the modern world. The creation of an actual trade organization was a marked improvement over the WTO's predecessor, the 1944 GATT, which never formed an organization per se. Among the many improvements to the GATT, the WTO Agreement substantially changed the mechanism for dispute settlement whenever conflict arose between member states. This change, codified as the Dispute Settlement Understanding ("DSU"), was initially hailed as a great improvement over the GATT dispute settlement provisions. …

First Options Of Chicago, Inc. V. Kaplan And The Kompetenz-Kompetenz Principle , Adrianna Dulic

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

In 1995, the United States Supreme Court in First Options of Chicago, Incorporated v. Kaplan considered whether arbitral tribunals or courts should have the primary power to decide if parties agreed to arbitrate the merits of the dispute and whether the court of appeals should accept the district court's findings of fact and law or apply a de novo standard of review. The Court unanimously held that, unless the parties clearly and unmistakably provide otherwise, the question of whether the parties agreed to arbitrate is to be decided by the court, not the arbitral tribunal. Furthermore, in such a case, …

Institutionalizing Mediation: The Role Of Lawyers And Bar Associations , Ronald R. Volkmer

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The world of trusts and estates is changing before our eyes - the "multidiscipline practice" trend may radically change the traditional practice of the probate bar. There is one constant, however, besides change and that is conflict. That conflict is oftentimes lurking beneath the surface when a lawyer becomes involved in the estate planning process. All of the technical knowledge you may possess about the legal system and its rules is valuable and necessary. But, the estate planning lawyer is preeminently a counselor at law. In the strongest possible way I urge students to become aware of conflict management skills …

Mediation And Jury Trials As Means Of Resolving Will Contests , Ronald Chester

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

In the vast range of human problems that law seeks to govern, there are certain areas in which legalisms and legal thinking are not particularly useful. It is my belief that one of these areas is that of will contests, in which nonlawyer dispute resolution seems particularly effective.

Mediation Of Probate Matters: Leaving A Valuable Legacy , Lela Porter Love

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Mediation has the power to bring parties to a different level of understanding about their underlying situation and about each other, to re-establish family harmony and to resolve both monetary and relationship issues that probate matters generally involve. To realize these advantages, this paper makes two suggestions. First, attorneys should urge testators to consider dispute resolution provisions in their will. Such provisions allow the testator to weigh in with a directive that the family pull together and attempt to resolve its conflicts creatively. A dispute resolution clause can also provide a vehicle to express and encourage family values connected with …

Mediation Of Proposition 187: Creative Solution To An Old Problem? Or Quiet Death For Initiatives?, Nicole E. Lucy

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The initiative Proposition 187 has been a catalyst for change. Supporters heralded it as the solution to "Save Our State" from the ills of illegal immigration. Those who opposed it, used Proposition 187 as a battle cry to mobilize a disenfranchised minority. Irrespective of ideology, Proposition 187 ended as no one could have predicted in November 1994 when it passed, 59% to 41%. When Governor Gray Davis inherited the Proposition 187 appeal from former Governor Pete Wilson, Governor Davis took the unprecedented step of seeking to resolve the conflict through mediation rather than actively defending Proposition 187 on appeal to …

Charge Me, Pay Me, But Don't Even Think Of Litigating Me: The Dominance Of Arbitration In Truth-In-Lending Claims , M. Susan Hale

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article analyzes the impact of the courts' ever increasing priority to enforce arbitration agreements in Truth In Lending Act (TILA) claims and reform. Part I entails a general discussion of TILA's logistics; the goals, the means, and the remedies. Part II briefly traces the rise of arbitration as well as evaluating its various advantages and disadvantages. Part III reports on the current emphasis of enforcing arbitration agreements in federal courts by explaining the basis of enforcing the agreement. Part IV explores the impact of arbitrating TILA claims on the claim and on individuals. Part V provides an analysis of …

Arbitration And Judicial Civil Justice: An American Historical Review And A Proposal For A Private/Arbitral And Public/Judicial Partnership , Roger S. Haydock, Jennifer D. Henderson

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Dispute resolution systems historically have included three primary forums: the judicial process, administrative procedures, and the arbitral system. This article focuses on the modem and rapidly expanding third system - that of arbitration. The goal of everyone interested in maintaining a fair, accessible, and affordable civil justice system is to monitor, shape, and maintain arbitration as a fair, accessible, and affordable system. The purpose of this article is to provide information and ideas which will help make that goal a success. The first part of this article explains the historical development of arbitration in this country prior to and under …

Contracting Around Ruaa: Default Rules, Mandatory Rules, And Judicial Review Of Arbitral Awards, Christopher R. Drahozal

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

By specifying that its provisions generally are default rules and listing particular exceptions, the Revised Uniform Arbitration Act (“RUAA”) provides much needed certainty and avoids unnecessary litigation, at least compared to the Federal Arbitration Act, which does not always identify which of its provisions are default rules. In one important respect, however, RUAA jettisons that valuable certainty. The RUAA drafters left open (or at least sought to leave open) the question whether parties can contract to expand the grounds for judicial review of arbitration awards beyond those set out in the statute. In other words, the drafters purported not to …

International Arbitral Appeals: What Are We So Afraid Of? , Erin E. Gleason

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article will explore the advantages of instituting appellate mechanisms in investor-state disputes and international commercial arbitration. Part II begins with a review of the WTO Appellate Body's development and workings, followed by an analysis of other appellate procedures for international trade law arbitration, including the MERCOSUR system's Permanent Court and the Grain and Feed Trade Association's appeals process. Part III examines the current methods for reviewing investor-state arbitration awards under ICSID and NAFTA. Part III goes on to advocate for the creation of an Appeals Facility, separate from current arbitral institutions, which would be empowered to hear appeals in …

The Clinton-Obama Approach To Medical Malpractice Reform: Reviving The Most Meaningful Features Of Alternative Dispute Resolution, Grant Wood Geckeler

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

An introduction to medical malpractice reform would be incomplete without mentioning the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) 1999 report, To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, which lists medical errors as the eighth leading cause of death in the United States. While much attention premiums, the media's recent interest in the application of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) tactics in medical malpractice cases has increased. The quest for a one-size-fits-all fix to rising health care costs has turned to ADR for guidance in the past, with hopes that binding arbitration and voluntary mediation would resolve the crisis. Recently, the …

Doping Control, Mandatory Arbitration, And Process Dangers For Accused Athletes In International Sports , Maureen A. Weston

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Athletes in a professional sports league in the United States are members of players unions, which assist their athletes in obtaining representation when they are involved in dispute resolution proceedings associated with disciplinary actions. However, individual athletes who participate in international competitions do not enjoy the same benefits. When these athletes are required to submit to mandatory drug testing, with attendant potential criminal liability, and to mandatory arbitration, they should be provided meaningful access to competent legal representation when their athletic careers are in jeopardy. This article considers the legal framework, process, and recourse for athletes in international competition to …

Ten Essential Elements Of An Effective Dispute Resolution Program , Stephen F. Gates

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

For an organization with a significant number of outstanding lawsuits and pre-litigation claims, it is important to have a comprehensive and disciplined program of managing disputes to produce optimal outcomes with consistency, effectiveness and cost efficiency. Based on my experience at large, complex industrial companies with well over 2,000 litigation matters outstanding at any time, the effective management of the dispute portfolio requires that each matter be managed effectively and that more matters be resolved each year than the number of new matters that arise. The focus of this article is corporate law departments, but the concepts are applicable to …

Using Adr Principles To Resolve Environmental Disputes: How Mediated Settlements Have Helped Struggling Cercla Survive , Jamie R. Adams

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The goal of this article is to show that the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution ("ADR") principles has made the remediation of numerous hazardous waste sites possible, and has thus enabled the struggling program to continue benefiting Americans everywhere. First, this article provides background information regarding the enactment of the Comprehensive Environmental Clean-up and Liability Act ("CERCLA") and its successor, the Superfund Amendments Reauthorization Act ("SARA"). Second, it explains why using ADR principles, instead of litigation, are vital methods of resolving CERCLA disputes. Third, three examples of major Superfund sites that were successfully cleaned up due to the use of …

Foreword, Jeffrey D. Hoyle

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The Symposium entitled American Justice at a Crossroads: A Public and Private Crisis was held at Pepperdine University School of Law on April 15, 2010, under the joint sponsorship of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, the Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal, and the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR). It brought together a distinguished group of speakers and panelists to discuss dissatisfaction with the American justice system caused by increased delays, rising litigation costs, and decreased access to justice; and creative ways being used to address these concerns.