The Task Force identified 47 studies from the past four decades with empirical data analyzing effects of particular mediator actions on certain mediation outcomes. Eight of these studies involved a process instead or in addition to mediation.
I’ve been doing appellate mediation since the program began, and I’ve been genuinely surprised by the success rate. At the program’s inception, I anticipated a significantly lower success rate than I’ve had with non-appellate mediations — but it’s about 70%, which isn’t much lower than my rate for other matters.
Good disagreements are essential to us in many ways. Being in the learning business, we and our students and clients cannot learn as much as possible unless we consider alternative perspectives. Our body of knowledge has always evolved and now it is changing at ever-faster rates.
I mediate a wide range of disputes — from automobile accidents, product liability claims, death claims and construction disputes to dissolution of business and professional practices, will contests, contract disputes and medical liability claims. I even occasionally mediate church splits.Given the variety of disputes I work on, I need flexibility in the mediation models I use — and the models I use are almost always either Joint Session, Caucus, or a combination of the two.
Readers of this blog would obviously recognize these as precisely the skills we focus on in our theory, teaching, and practice. The chapters deal with self-awareness, self-development, social proficiency, wisdom, leadership, and professionalism. Each of these subjects include quite a number of specific skills.
We are delighted that Dean Robert Post of the Yale Law School, a noted First Amendment scholar, will be our keynote speaker. Lisa Amsler (Indiana), Jennifer Brown (Quinnipiac), and Grande Lum (Ohio State) will anchor an afternoon panel on lessons to be learned from DR scholarship. And there are other panels, too
I recently served on a panel of mediators at the Alabama State Bar’s annual meeting. One of the attendees asked the panel if we encouraged attorneys to give opening statements in mediations. I was the sole panelist who said Yes.
People talk about alternative dispute resolution (ADR) as if it’s one process. But it isn’t. It is a continuum of processes that vary by relative control over the outcome, length, expense and confidentiality. This article will help you understand the variety of processes available, and select the one that will efficiently settle your company’s or client’s dispute.
