Tag Archives: Dispute Resolution Practice

Resources for Using Real Practice Systems Materials in Teaching

This post describes how faculty can use ideas and materials from the Real Practice Systems Project to help students get realistic understandings of practice.  I initially focused on mediation systems, which are the combination of factors affecting what mediators do before, during, and after mediation sessions.  These systems include their routine procedures and strategies for … Continue reading Resources for Using Real Practice Systems Materials in Teaching →

Ten Real Mediation Systems

This short article presents accounts of ten mediators about the factors affecting how we handle continuing streams of mediations – our mediation systems.  These systems are the combination of factors affecting what mediators do before, during, and after mediation sessions.  The systems include their routine procedures and strategies for dealing with recurring challenging situations. The … Continue reading Ten Real Mediation Systems →

Alyson Carrel Program on Sept 1:  ADR As A First Career: It Is Possible!

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The Association for Conflict Resolution of Greater New York and the City University of New York Dispute Resolution Center at John Jay College will host a Virtual Roundtable Breakfast entitled, “ADR As a First Career: It Is Possible!” featuring Alyson Carrel.  She is clinical professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and co-director of its … Continue reading Alyson Carrel Program on Sept 1:  ADR As A First Career: It Is Possible! →

Canaries in the Litigation Coal Mine

Early coal mines didn’t have good ventilation, and miners were at risk from dangerous gases in the mines.  So miners would bring canaries into the mines because they were sensitive to the gases and provided a warning of danger.  The canaries would sing until they died from the gases.  When they stopped singing, miners knew … Continue reading Canaries in the Litigation Coal Mine →

Reconciling Allegedly Alternative Mediation Models by Using DIY Models

Like it or not, facilitative and evaluative mediation are part of the social reality of our field.  Despite the fact that these models are misleading and provide counterproductive concepts to guide mediators’ behaviors and set parties’ expectations, they are inescapable.  They are standard elements in texts, courses, trainings, and general discourse in our field.  They … Continue reading Reconciling Allegedly Alternative Mediation Models by Using DIY Models →

If You Had Only One Hour to Describe ADR, What Would You Say?

This was the question I had to answer when planning a lecture.  I was a speaker in a course offered by the Universidad Monteavila in Caracas, Venezuela.  My wonderful colleague, Rafael Gely, organized this collaboration with Missouri’s DR Center to provide a series of speakers, including me. My Venezuelan colleague told me that I could … Continue reading If You Had Only One Hour to Describe ADR, What Would You Say? →

Courts Should Make Mediations Good Samaritans Not Frankensteins

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Here’s a short article you might be interested in. Using a recent California appellate decision as a jumping off point, it identifies problems with mandatory mediation and recommends that courts use good dispute system design procedures to reduce risks of creating Frankensteins – mediation that produces injustices.  Of course, some courts have policies fulfilling the … Continue reading Courts Should Make Mediations Good Samaritans Not Frankensteins →

Virtual Conference on Unbundled Legal Services in the New Normal – April 20-22

The Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS), the Chicago Bar Foundation, the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, and the Self-Represented Litigation Network (SRLN) are hosting a three-day virtual event that will focus on the major hows and whys of supporting and implementing the practice of unbundled legal … Continue reading Virtual Conference on Unbundled Legal Services in the New Normal – April 20-22 →

Anna Howard’s New Book Examines Why Businesses Don’t Use Mediation – And Other Issues

Anna Howard‘s new book, EU Cross-Border Commercial Mediation: Listening to Disputants – Changing the Frame; Framing the Changes, provides valuable insights about business disputing.  It reports the findings of her study about mediation of EU cross-border commercial disputes, but the dynamics she describes occur in the US and probably many other countries as well. Anna … Continue reading Anna Howard’s New Book Examines Why Businesses Don’t Use Mediation – And Other Issues →

Concepts That Can Help Practitioners Help Parties Make Decisions in Disputes

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The good folks at the Association for Conflict Resolution of Greater New York and CUNY Dispute Resolution Center at John Jay College invited me to give a talk as part of their monthly breakfast series.  Last week, I gave a presentation, Helping Parties Make Decisions About What’s Really Important, which synthesizes ideas I have been … Continue reading Concepts That Can Help Practitioners Help Parties Make Decisions in Disputes →