Tag Archives: Empirical Research

Understanding Actual DR Practice and Communicating Clearly About It

At the upcoming Past-and-Future Conference at Pepperdine, much of the discussion will be about engaging the real world of dispute resolution.  This post recommends that to help do this, we develop a common language of dispute resolution and increasingly use qualitative research methods. We Should Set a Top Priority to Develop Clearer Common Language of … Continue reading Understanding Actual DR Practice and Communicating Clearly About It →

Serial Podcast Shows How Much You Can Learn From a Single Case

8 Comments

The first episode of the Serial podcast’s new season is a dramatic illustration of how much you can learn from a single case.  The case involves a young white woman who was prosecuted for her participation in a bar fight.  The Serial team are incredible storytellers, so this podcast is not “just” educational, but it … Continue reading Serial Podcast Shows How Much You Can Learn From a Single Case →

What Do Litigants Really Want?

4 Comments

Donna Shestowsky (California-Davis) recently wrote the latest in a series of her studies asking actual litigants about their procedural preferences.  The article is Inside the Mind of the Client:  An Analysis of Litigants’ Decision Criteria for Choosing Procedures, 36 Conflict Resolution Quarterly 69 (2018).  Here’s the abstract: This article presents findings from the first longitudinal … Continue reading What Do Litigants Really Want? →

ABA Conference Sessions You Might Enjoy

I love the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution annual conferences. They always put on a wide array of wonderful sessions and it’s a great time to connect with friends, old and new. As in the past, I am listing some sessions that particularly intrigue me.  This reflects my idiosyncratic tastes and it would be a … Continue reading ABA Conference Sessions You Might Enjoy →

Conversation Between Julie Macfarlane and Woody Mosten about Unbundling and Self-Represented Litigants

Recently, I did a post about a new book that Forrest (“Woody”) Mosten co-authored about unbundled legal services. Woody just sent me a link to a podcast conversation he had with our friend, Dr. Julie Macfarlane, the director of the National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP).  In this podcast, entitled “Back to the Future of Legal … Continue reading Conversation Between Julie Macfarlane and Woody Mosten about Unbundling and Self-Represented Litigants →

Stone Soup, Reflective Practice, Action Research, and Social Justice

Some questions for law professors:  Why did you go to law school?  Why did you decide to go into academia?  What do you want to accomplish in your work?  What do you hope for your students? In this post, I give my answers to these questions, which I think will resonate for many readers of … Continue reading Stone Soup, Reflective Practice, Action Research, and Social Justice →

Stone Soup:  A Thousand Great Chefs

  In June, Rafael Gely and I, the co-directors of the Stone Soup Project, decided to shift our approach from our original plan of a centralized database to a decentralized set of experimental efforts to produce knowledge about actual practice – aka letting a thousand chefs cook. I recently talked with many of the faculty who … Continue reading Stone Soup:  A Thousand Great Chefs →

Takeaways From New Hampshire Mediation Training

  Recently, Susan Yates and I conducted mediation trainings on behalf of the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Judicial Branch Office of Mediation and Arbitration, and the University of New Hampshire, School of Law. As part of the trainings, we collected survey data and focus-group-like comments from … Continue reading Takeaways From New Hampshire Mediation Training →

Stone Soup:  Model for Gathering Data at Continuing Education Programs

  Recently, Susan Yates and I conducted mediation trainings on behalf of the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Judicial Branch Office of Mediation and Arbitration, and the University of New Hampshire, School of Law. As part of the trainings, we collected survey data and focus-group-like comments from … Continue reading Stone Soup:  Model for Gathering Data at Continuing Education Programs →