The Summer edition of Dispute Resolution Magazine runs an article by Diane Levin (a familiar name to those in the online ADR community because she is the brain behind adrblogs.com). Likening us to 18th century English coffehouses (where is my double-shot latte, by the way?), Diane thoughtfully describes the blog phenomenon in a way that … Continue reading ADR Blogging Makes an Appearance in Print
Geoff Sharp, whose Mediatorblahblah blog was one of the only things I read with regularity, announced a few days ago that he is bowing out. We as a field are poorer for his departure, but we should all be grateful to him for his thoughtful, self-confessedly “overly opinionated” contributions. With more than a thousands posts … Continue reading Geoff Sharp, Mediatorblahblah, “Bows Out” of blogging
And by us, I mean people who teach ADR in law schools. I have just completed a year-long data-driven research project looking at the current shape of ADR within the legal academy, along with a look at trends over the past decade. I learned a ton. I was sometimes surprised. Occasionally appalled. Mostly hopeful. Some … Continue reading What Could Possibly Be More Interesting Than Us ?
Lots to chew on coming out of Washington, D.C. in recent days. Paul Bland (Public Justice) and Professor Chris Drahozal (Kansas) provided testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Domestic Policy, along with representatives of NAF and AAA. Their prepared testimony is available here. The Staff Report is here. Rep. … Continue reading Materials from Congressional Hearings on Arbitration
Citing the Wall Street Journal, WorkplaceProfBlog just reported here that the American Arbitration Association has withdrawn from consumer debt collection arbitration. I have not found AAA’s statement on the decision, and I have no idea how this affects existing claims. Some have guessed that “smoking gun evidence” led to the NAF decision to withdraw. I … Continue reading AAA Joins NAF in Stepping Away from Credit Card Arbitration
Business Week reported yesterday that NAF will no longer do consumer card arbitration, and if I’m reading the article correctly, will no longer do any of a range of other consumer arbitrations. A settlement of the Minnesota Attorney General’s claim against NAF, this could shake up arbitration from a provider side, just as Congress has … Continue reading NAF Announcement — Out of Consumer Arbitration
The Minnesota AG’s complaint is here, and the NAF’s response from its website is here. Under Minnesota’s state rules of civil procedure, which I’m pretty sure parallel the FRCP on these matters, we’ll probably have a chance to see NAF’s answer relatively soon. Michael Moffitt
No, that’s not a typo. And no, I am not among the persistent number who treat “arbitration” and “mediation” as coterminous. I mean “Mediation.” And I mean “Separability.” I was reading a recent case — Santana v. Olguin, 208 P.3d 328 (Kan.App., May 29, 2009), and it made me wonder how courts treat mediation provisions … Continue reading Mediation and the Separability Doctrine
No formal announcement from Vanderbilt yet, but Brian Leiter posted the news earlier today, and Chris confirmed it to me in an email this evening. Vanderbilt is a lucky, lucky school. I look forward to watching the law school under Chris’s leadership. Michael Moffitt
In the Spring 2009 issue of Conflict Resolution Quarterly appears an article by Charkoudian, de Ritis, Buck and Wilson entitled, Mediation by Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet, or Would It? The Struggle to Define Approaches to Mediation. (Vol. 23 Issue 3, p.293.) The authors conducted two studies reasonably contemporaneously, and report them together. … Continue reading More in the quest to define elusive mediator approaches/styles
