Tag Archives: Assessing Interests and Risks

Helping People Make Hard Decisions – And Making Them Ourselves

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You are going to die.  Before then, you may endure extended periods of suffering from illnesses and injuries (especially from falling down), grisly side effects from medical treatments, chronic physical and mental deterioration, disconnection from your earlier life, loss of control, family conflict, and entanglement with the medical and insurance industries. Some of that misery … Continue reading Helping People Make Hard Decisions – And Making Them Ourselves →

Litigation Interest and Risk Assessment

Recently, Rishi Batra, Heather Heavin, Michaela Keet, and I presented a program on negotiation theory at the Southeast Conference on Conflict Management at Lipscomb University. We focused primarily on litigation interest and risk assessment (LIRA).  This is the subject of a forthcoming ABA book, Litigation Interest and Risk Assessment: Help Your Clients Make Good Litigation … Continue reading Litigation Interest and Risk Assessment →

Planning for Good Quality Decision-Making in Mediation Using Two-Stage Mediation

Canadian mediator Rick Weiler wrote a blog post raising concerns about whether predominant model of commercial mediation using a single three- or six-hour session promotes good decision-making by litigants.  He wrote: The current commercial mediation model handed down over the past 30 years is working just fine for lawyers and mediators (not to mention the … Continue reading Planning for Good Quality Decision-Making in Mediation Using Two-Stage Mediation →

How Can Practitioners Help Clients Assess Their Interests and Risks in Litigation?

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I recently visited our DR friends and colleagues at Quinnipiac, courtesy of an invitation from Charlie Pillsbury, the co-director of their Center on Dispute Resolution.  He invited me to give a talk as part of the Quinnipiac-Yale Dispute Resolution Workshop. I tested some ideas from the book I am writing with Michaela Keet and Heather … Continue reading How Can Practitioners Help Clients Assess Their Interests and Risks in Litigation? →

Real-Life Account of Litigation Stress in Bill Cosby Case

I just wrote a post describing “litigation stress” that parties experience during litigation, noting that this can be particularly painful in some cases like those involving sexual assault allegations. Allegations of sexual assault by Judge Brett Kavanaugh have been in the news a lot lately.  While these allegations aren’t being litigated in court, the process … Continue reading Real-Life Account of Litigation Stress in Bill Cosby Case →

Reality-Testing Questions for Real Life and Simulations – and Ideas for Stone Soup Assignments

Litigation offers many potential benefits.  It can help people solve difficult problems, make relationships and institutions function properly, and promote justice.  It enables people to enlist legitimate, independent government officials to resolve disputes when the parties can’t resolve disputes themselves.  Indeed, litigation provides mechanisms for structuring dispute resolution processes that enable most parties to ultimately … Continue reading Reality-Testing Questions for Real Life and Simulations – and Ideas for Stone Soup Assignments →

Keet and Heavin on Why Litigation Interest and Risk Assessment is So Darn Important for Lawyers and Mediators – And How You Can Make Stone Soup With It

Michaela Keet and Heather Heavin (Saskatchewan), have been studying “litigation interest and risk assessment” (LIRA), something you probably teach using different names.  You probably emphasize the importance of analyzing BATNAs and preparing for negotiation and mediation, which are basic elements of LIRA. Building on their own and others’ research, they developed a simple but comprehensive … Continue reading Keet and Heavin on Why Litigation Interest and Risk Assessment is So Darn Important for Lawyers and Mediators – And How You Can Make Stone Soup With It →