The Minnesota Attorney General filed suit today against the National Arbitration Forum alleging multiple counts of consumer fraud in violation of Minnesota law. The suit stems from an allegation that both the NAF and many of the collection firms that regularly use its services are owned, at least in part, by the same company. Business … Continue reading Minnesota AG sues the National Arbitration Forum
The ABA’s Dispute Resolution Section has just issued its Call for Proposals for the Section’s annual meeting next April in San Francisco. A copy of the Call for Proposals can be seen here, and the proposal form can be accessed here. As an fyi, priority is given to proposals that introduce new and innovative concepts, … Continue reading Call for Proposals – ABA Dispute Resolution Section Conference
Professor Susan Franck at Washington and Lee has an interesting new paper about investment treaty arbitration that just hit SSRN. The paper disputes assertions of certain governments (like Bolivia and Ecuador) that suggest the investment treaty process is unfairly tilted against the developing world. In addition it makes a case for using ADR and Dispute … Continue reading Development and Outcomes of Investment Treaty Arbitration
In contrast to the election turmoil occurring in Iran, an interesting alternative for settling an election occurred in suburban Phoenix yesterday. The City of Cave Creek recently had an election for their city council and two candidates had a runoff election for the last council seat. They ended up tied with 660 votes each. How did … Continue reading Elections and Dispute Resolution – A Card Game
On Tuesday, NPR’s afternoon news show All Things Considered aired a piece on arbitration. The piece is interesting, but not favorable. It shares several compelling stories – a female Halliburton employee who was raped by co-workers in Iraq and has to arbitrate her claims against the company, the Public Citizen study where consumers lost 94% of the … Continue reading NPR Story on the “Arbitration Debate”
I’m furiously working on an article and thought I’d seek some input on my line of reasoning about one’s “bottom-line” in negotiations. The ABA’s standing ethics committee has two opinions stating that the “bottom line” is a material fact under Rule 4.1, and as a result, you cannot lie about what your bottom line (and … Continue reading Negotiation Ethics and Lying about Your Bottom-Line
I’d like to take this time to remind our law professor readers, who are furiously grading papers like I am, to keep the Boskey Essay competition in mind as you read your students’ papers. If you see a paper that stands out, encourage the student to submit it into the competition. The essay may … Continue reading Reminder – Boskey Essay Competition
Since many of this blog’s readers are students I want to take a moment to congratulate you on your graduation from law school. I recognize that the downturn in the economy has had a dramatic affect on many of your post graduation employment plans, and nobody signed up for graduating with a heavy debt with … Continue reading Congratulations Graduates !!
Here’s another summary of info from the Legal Educators’ Committee’s program entitled Law Professors’ Forum: Mediation Shop Talk, which was part of last month’s ABA DR Section’s annual meeting in New York. The Forum was split into three separate presentations: a general “plenary” session, the notes for which Andrea posted on May 9th, a clinical section devoted to … Continue reading Law Professors’ Forum: Mediation Shop Talk – Grading in Mediation Clinics
If this string of calls for papers is any indication, ADR issues are hot on the law review circuit. Here’s the latest one, in its entirety, from our friends at the Vermont Law School. The Vermont Law Review has agreed to publishing three professional articles and one student article on emerging issues in dispute resolution. This dedicated edition … Continue reading Call for Papers – Emerging Issues in ADR
