Len Riskin and Nancy Welsh recently posted a version of their article, “Is that All There is? The ‘Problem’ in Court-Oriented Mediation.” I gather from the taglines that it will be published in the George Mason Law Review later this year, and I look forward to seeing the final version. The question Len and Nancy … Continue reading What’s the Problem? (with the problems mediation tries to solve)
The New York Times yesterday had a front page article on how doctors have discovered that saying “I’m sorry” for medical mistakes makes a lot of sense. There is part of me that says “It’s about time!” Many of us in the field have known about this phenomenon for some time based on the research … Continue reading I’m Sorry Actually Works
I just read the recently-posted, to-be-published-somewhere empirical study of the use of ADR in the federal government in the late 1990s. Entitled, Dispute Resolution and the Vanishing Trial: Comparing Federal Government Litigation and ADR Outcomes, the study’s authors include Lisa Bingham, Tina Nabatchi, Jeff Senger, and Michael Scott Jackman. Their abstract reads: This study compares … Continue reading ADR: The Federal Government’s Experience
David Hoffman published an op-ed yesterday in the Christian Science Monitor about why it might have been a good idea to mediate the deal between Microsoft and Yahoo rather than watching it fall apart. As David writes, “When Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer met with Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang earlier this month, what kept them from … Continue reading Mediating Between Microsoft and Yahoo?
While certification and ethics for mediators continue to be hotly debated in the U.S., a new organization has come on the scene with the goal of offering a certification that will be accepted as the global mediator competency standard. International Mediation Institute (“IMI”) was created by the Netherlands Mediation Institute, Singapore Mediation Centre/Singapore International Arbitration … Continue reading International Effort to Certify Mediators
In Advanced Bodycare Solutions, LLC v. Thione International, Inc., No. 07-12309 (11th Cir. April 21, 2008), the Eleventh Circuit ruled that the Federal Arbitration Act could not be used to enforce the parties’ agreement to resolve disputes using mediation or nonbinding arbitration. The Court noted that while the FAA does not define “arbitration”, classic arbitration … Continue reading 11th Circuit Confirms that Mediation is not Arbitration
If “conflict resolution” happened in a forest, and nobody was around to facilitate it, would it still be “conflict resolution”? In an article in the most recent Conflict Resolution Quarterly, Patricia Orr, Kirk Emerson, and Dale Keyes report on the development of an evaluation framework for conflict resolution practice in environmental and natural resource disputes. … Continue reading Defining Environmental “Conflict Resolution”
Shameless self-promotion alert! Earlier today, I posted my first draft of an article entitled The Four Ways to Assure Mediator Quality (and why none of them work) I gave a presentation by the same title at Harvard Law School’s Dispute Resolution Forum about six weeks ago, and this draft reflects much of the feedback I … Continue reading The Four Ways to Assure Mediator Quality (and why none of them work)
For those of us who have been looking forward to mediation becoming part of the popular culture, another sign that this might happen is the latest career rankings from US News. According to US News, a mediator is one of the best careers for 2008. The site on US News describes the job relatively accurately, … Continue reading One of the 31 Best Careers in 2008? Mediator!
In days past, we joked about how little-known mediation was and how frequently the process was confused with meditation. But, today, mediation is mentioned more and more frequently in the news and popular culture. Unfortunately, the attention is not always flattering. In fact, the attention sometimes reveals that mediation is being used in just the … Continue reading Mediation and Cover-Ups
