In a closely-watched case, the Supreme Court of the State of Washington held today that statutes of limitation do not apply in arbitration.   Broom v. Morgan Stanley DW, Inc., No. 82311-1 (Sup. Ct. Wa. July 22, 2010).  In that case, an NASD arbitration panel dismissed investors’ garden-variety suitability claims against their brokers on state statute of … Continue reading Washington State Highest Court Rules Statutes of Limitations Do NOT Apply to Arbitration →

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled today, in an advisory opinion, that Kosovo’s 2008 unilateral declaration of independence did not violate international law.  It will be interesting to watch the impact from this decision.  In the short term the obvious hope is that the decision will not incite violence in Serbia or within Kosovo.  … Continue reading Not Illegal →

A reminder that the ADR law professors’ works-in-progress gathering has an August 1 deadline for those who want to submit papers. You are, of course, also welcome to just come and listen/learn/lurk.  But given the format of the gathering, now’s not the time to wait until you have something polished.  Come take advantage of the … Continue reading Works-in-Progress Call for Papers →

As this article describes, the Obama Administration has awarded a $3 million grant to the New York court system (of all things) in its effort to improve patient safety while lower the costs of medical malpractice litigation. The grant stems from the work of Judge Doug McKeon, who handles medical malpractice cases involving New York … Continue reading Finding “Humanness” in Medical Malpractice Litigation →

Last week I asked this question on the AALS list-serv: I’ve been using many of the same role-play scenarios in my Negotiation class for years and all of them have a ZOPA in there somewhere.  I’ve found that the students get trained to expect there to always be a deal there, which in some ways … Continue reading Negotiation Scenarios Where No Deal is the Best Result →

Now that the national furor has died down over Arizona’s immigration law locally known as SB 1070, some rational commentary is starting to come to the fore.  Jack Chin of the University of Arizona has been leading the charge.  He, along with others including my colleague Carissa Hessick, have looked at the various claims the … Continue reading Arizona Immigration Legislation (SB 1070) Update →

I recently received an announcement regarding an effort involving the Department of Labor and the National Association for Community Mediation.  As I understand it, the goal of the effort is to generate some sense of how mediators weigh various definitional aspects or components of mediation. I have separately written a tediously long article entitled “Schmediation … Continue reading Defining “Mediation” — Only 5 days left! →

  Volume 26, Number 3, July 2010   Editor’s Note Michael Wheeler    Research Digest     Predicting Competitive-Unethical Negotiating Behavior and Its Consequences Roger Volkema, Denise Fleck,  and Agnes Hofmeister   Transformative Women, Problem-Solving Men? Not Quite: Gender and Mediators’ Perceptions of Mediation Noa Nelson, Adi Zarankin, and Rachel Ben-Ari   Consensus Arbitration: A Negotiation … Continue reading Negotiation Journal, July 2010 →

This just in from the National Association for Community Mediation The Department of Labor (DOL) wants to know what it takes to be an “expert mediator” and have turned to NAFCM for help.  As a member-based organization serving hundreds of mediators and community mediation centers – which, in turn, oversee thousands of skilled mediators nationwide … Continue reading Mediators’ “Defining” Moment →

In a recent case, Matarrazo v. L.R. Royal, Inc., a New York court said “No.” The employer was a mortgage broker, and the employee was hired as a mortgage sales manager. The employee’s attorney drafted the arbitration clause, which provided that the parties split the costs of arbitration, with an important caveat: the employee’s share … Continue reading Can Costs of Employment Arbitration Be Unfair to Employer? →