Under the “American Rule,” each party bears the burden of whatever expenses it incurs during the course of litigation, regardless of the outcome of the case. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54 presents one exception to this broad assertion. Under its terms (and equivalent state provisions), “costs other than attorneys’ fees shall be allowed as … Continue reading Mediation Fees as Recoverable Costs?
On the day that the Foreign Relations Committee voted to call the Armenian genocide a “genocide”, it is perhaps even more fitting to talk about restorative justice and human rights. As promised last week, I wanted to report on Carrie Menkel-Meadow’s talk at Marquette. Carrie’s talk was entitled Cultural Variations in Restorative Justice: Case Studies … Continue reading Restorative Justice–Both Pursuing Justice and Repairing the Harm
Like Sarah (see her 10/8/07 post), I also noticed that Public Citizen released a report on the credit card industry’s use of mandatory arbitration clauses. The report uses plenty of inflammatory language: consumers are being “forced into the shadowy world of binding mandatory arbitration,” arbitration firms “hire arbitrators to rubber-stamp rulings that favor business,” and … Continue reading When Is the Temptation Too Much?
From Professor Ellen Deason, Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University, comes our first guest blog: Most court challenges to the enforcement of settlement agreements reached through mediation are doomed to fail. As shown by Jim Coben’s and Peter Thompson’s empirical analysis of litigation concerning mediation, courts are far more likely to enforce … Continue reading Fraud in Mediated Settlement Agreements
Public Citizen recently issued a report detailing “the arbitration trap” consumers face when they sign up for credit card accounts (http://www.citizen.org/publications/) Public Citizen is a non-profit group that focuses, among other things, on eliminating the use of mandatory arbitration clauses in employment and consumer disputes. The report details many of the problems associated with the … Continue reading Credit Card Companies and Arbitration
Contingent fees for non-binding arbitrators? or What’s good for the goose… Many court systems have adopted a form of mandatory arbitration for certain categories of cases. Though the details vary by jurisdiction, the basic structure is this: Parties file a lawsuit, and are directed to non-binding arbitration in advance of (or in lieu of) trial. … Continue reading Contingent fees for non-binding arbitrators?
Carrie Menkel-Meadow is visiting Marquette yesterday and today as our Boden Professor. She gave a fabulous lecture last night on Cultural Variations on Restorative Justice: Case Studies of Chile, Argentina & China based on her travels in the last year. I’ll post more next week on the substance of her talk! Andrea Schneider
I just finished editing my piece for our symposium on plea bargaining, Cooperating or Caving In: Are Defense Attorneys Shrewd or Exploited in Plea Bargaining Negotiations? and, I must say, I am more and more uncomfortable with what I am saying each time I read it. Let me explain…. In 1999-2000, I did a study … Continue reading Are Defense Attorneys Shrewd or Overwhelmed?
For the past several years, I’ve been mulling through the implications of procedural justice in mediation and other forms of dispute resolution. Procedural justice is, simply enough, the justice of the procedures used to make decisions and resolve disputes. Researchers “discovered” procedural justice in the 1970s, as the American administrative state experimented with ways to … Continue reading The Relationship Between Justice and Status in Dispute Resolution
On November 7, 2007, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Hall St. Assocs. LLC v. Mattel, Inc. 196 F. App’x (9th Cir. 2006), cert. granted, 127 S.Ct. 2875 (May 29, 2007) (online merits brief at http://www.abanet.org/publiced/preview/briefs/nov07.shtml#hallstreet). This case will finally address whether parties may agree to expand judicial review of arbitration awards. The federal … Continue reading Supreme Court to Hear Arguments in Case Addressing Whether Parties May Agree to Expand Judicial Review of Arbitration Awards
