Arbitration & Mediation

Commercial Mediation Survey: D.I.Y

Posted on September 08, 2008
I have had some offline correspondence around my mediation survey posted yesterday - yes, by all means feel free to use it.I found it to be a great marketing exercise giving me a good excuse to contact my best repeat clients and those who I had not heard from in a while...

Commercial Mediation Survey

Posted on September 07, 2008
Over the last couple of months I have polled, in a fairly unscientific way, some busy commercial litigators who I know to integrate mediation into their practice rather than simply using it to fight fires in an ad hoc kind of way.You may be interested in their answers to questions like these;>Rank the relative significance of these factors when picking a mediator >Rank the relative significance of these factors when picking a case for mediation >How often do you use mediation to resolve cases as compared with direct negotiation >Why would you elect a judicial settlement conference over a private mediation? >Generally, how do you rate your experience of mediator performance? >Do you think repeat use of a mediator diminishes impartiality? ...

So this is how a mediation blog dies...

Posted on September 07, 2008
Nice knowing you ZapaBlog coming to us from the good people at Zapacap Mediation[click on the title of this post to read more...]

Two new mediate.com articles up today

Posted on September 02, 2008
Worth a read;Evaluative Mediation Techniques Help Achieve Success by L.A's Jeff Kichaven'A mediator's evaluations can take as many forms as there are stars in the heavens... the most common are:1. Ask pointed questions that raise issues or imply answers...

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Securitization Litigation & The Debt Crisis: What's on the Horizon?

Posted on September 01, 2008
Here for a JAMS' piece on recent trends in mortgage and asset backed securities litigation and effective strategies for dealing with these cases, including how ADR can be used to successfully resolve complex securities disputes.[click on the title of this post to read more...

Help for the wired mediator

Posted on August 29, 2008
If you are like me and on the road a lot, this PC World Guide to Mobile Living won't help with the loneliness, but it will assist you with your technology including;>How to find wi-fi hotspots in airports, hotels, and on the road>Access your home PC and files from remote locations>Watch your home TV on the go, regardless of your location>Turn your cell phone into a GPS or speech recognition device>Learn to shoot and share live video from your cell phone>Tips for keeping your laptop safe while in transit[click on the title of this post to read more...

Rate your mediator

Posted on August 29, 2008
The Modern Woman's Divorce Guide provides a number of tools for divorcing women, including how to score the mediator (Yes, I know, I could have said that better).Take a look at;Mediator Interview Questionnaire - questions to interview mediators and find the best match, including;What are your opinions about divorce?What are your opinions about child custody and visitationHow many mediation matters or clients do you currently have?Mediator Evaluation Worksheet - for recording important facts about the mediators and any assistants, including;Did the receptionist handle my telephone calls pleasantly and confidently? Yes/NoIf the mediator wasn?t available, did the receptionist know when he/she would be available? Yes/NoDuring my office visit, did the receptionist greet me warmly? Yes/NoDid the receptionist mention other clients? names while in my presence? Yes/NoDid the staff discuss other cases within my earshot? Yes/NoLegit or BS?[click on the title of this post to read more...

What Happens When A Gorilla Firm Moves into Town?

Posted on August 29, 2008
Read a JAMS/AAA/ADR Services or Judicate West instead of 'Biglaw' in this piece by legal marketing whiz Tom Kane.'First of all sit down, relax and have a good laugh. Because, unless the mega firm is moving into town for reasons relating to an existing client or a local merger, they really aren't a threat...

Girls Gone Wild

Posted on August 28, 2008
Well, looks like this saga continues out of control; no change there.I'll assume you know the backgrond - long story short, this soft porn guy was thrown into the corner of a Florida jail for 11 months as a result of his antics at a mediation (of a civil claim bought by the parents of girls that he filmed)...

Contingency fees for mediators

Posted on August 26, 2008
I have been on this soap box before at Why do so few mediators make any money? and Cheaper is a short term hit, not a long term advantage as well as other posts on this blog.But seriously what's wrong with the way we price ourselves? Why are some mediators not making money?Most mediators charge fees based on time...

The role of mediation in public law proceedings

Posted on August 25, 2008
This one is for mediators in Commonwealth jurisdictions.New Zealand lawyer, Paul Radich, considers the role of ADR in public law/judicial review proceedings."While recent years have seen a marked increase in most areas of civil law in the use of alternative dispute resolution, most notably mediation, the field of public law has been the most resistant to this general trend...

I [heart] LA

Posted on June 12, 2008
Next week, I am in sunny Los Angeles visiting colleagues and teaching the Mediating the Complex Case with JAM's Bruce Edwards at Pepperdine University's 21st Annual Summer Professional Skills Program in Dispute Resolution.Expect salty posts from beside the seaside at Malibu where the faculty is being lodged in style (and where even the beach is wireless!)...

Winners of the Make Talk Work International Video Competition

Posted on June 11, 2008
View the winning videos (funded by JAMS) on the City University of New York Dispute Resolution Consortium website here (they seem slow to load)[click on the title of this post to read more...]

Practitioner perspectives on caucusing

Posted on June 09, 2008
I thought this was an interesting exercise - contributions to a recent CADRE Practitioner Listserv thread on caucusing have been summarised and presented in a 3 page document here.[click on the title of this post to read more...]

12 Articles on Mediator Income

Posted on June 07, 2008
Given the huge response to my post Why do so few mediators make any money? (more than double the number of readers), you may find these 12 posts - all with further links into the topic - from me and others on mediator income of interest;1. Let Me Tell You Why So Few Mediators Make Money (Dina Beach Lynch)2...

Find X

Posted on June 06, 2008
Man, I can hardly spell when I get up on the whiteboard in a big mediation at the best of times - let alone do calculus.But this week, after I offered to track on the whiteboard a geotech's explanation of soil density around some suspect marina piles, I was asked to 'find X' on his diagram - sure, I saw his lips move, but all I heard was blah blah blah...

Why do so few mediators make any money?

Posted on June 05, 2008
Now that I have your attention - this is just one of the chapter headings in a new article analysing the market for private mediators in the US by Ur?ka Velikonja, a teaching fellow in Harvard's Economics Department.Of course I would be remiss if I did not mention that the very next chapter asks Why do some mediators make so much money?In any event, it contains much interesting data on the business end of what we do, although Ur?ka surely the footnote has had its day?Some of the money quotes;>The vast majority of people who enter the mediation market drop out within two years...

2008 Lawyer As Problem Solver Award Announced

Posted on June 05, 2008
The 2008 American Bar Association Lawyer as Problem Solver Award will be presented to Tina Rasnow, Coordinator of the Self-Help Legal Access Center Superior Court, County of Venturaas as the individual recipient.The Brooklyn, New York Attorney's Office under District Attorney Charles J...

Where do all the mediations go?

Posted on June 03, 2008
Any jobbing mediator will know what I mean.It's like socks - where the hell do they go to between the washing machine and the sock draw?After a flap last week where I interrupted a mediation to return a red hot call from a lawyer looking for an urgent date, and followed that with a confirmation blackberry email on the run providing a spread of dates, I get this today;[click to enlarge] What, but @!*?I mean - I'd be delighted to be of assistance at any time in the future...

Mediating f2f holographically

Posted on June 02, 2008
Ok, when you are truly a carbon neutral mediator in future years and refuse to travel big distances to your high stakes mediations, remember you saw world?s first live holographic video feed here on blah... blah...See these guys? They are on stage together, but the chap on the left is in Bangalore, India and the two on the right are in San Jose, CA...

The gathering pace of mediator feedback online

Posted on June 01, 2008
As most readers will know from my recent posts on IMI Certification - online feedback by users of mediation is set to become all the rage.Here is an example of recent real IMI feedback on a UK mediator and, depending on how IMI's Global Mediator Certification gets on, this format may become the norm...

First Judge Judy, now 'The Peacemaker'

Posted on May 28, 2008
Two L.A. mediators are shopping a TV pilot that would showcase their art - I am suprised there has not been more comment about this [click on the title of this post to read more...]

Is this OK?

Posted on May 28, 2008
Well, maybe Owen 'settlement is the civil analogue of plea bargaining' Fiss had a better crystal ball than I gave him credit for in my recent post.With news this week from Clay County, Kentucky that its crime mediation program - in which felony cases are mediated - was wildly successful...

Is the market ready for LUMU rapid response?

Posted on May 27, 2008
20 May - London's Littleton Chambers has just launched a new, urgent mediation service.The Littleton Urgent Mediation Unit, or ?Lumu?, offers a rapid response mediation service dedicated to early and urgent dispute resolution. The LUMU tag line is ?a phone call in the morning could lead to a mediated exit agreement that same day...

The Problem with Court Mediation

Posted on May 27, 2008
It's early in the week for another article of substance and I usually try to back end them, but this one is an exception.A new article in the George Mason Law Review by Leonard Riskin and Nancy Welsh just might scratch an itch for many of us.Is that All There is? 'The Problem' in Court-Oriented Mediation says that court-oriented mediation now reflects the dominance of lawyers and insurance claims adjusters - and one shot players are not catered for...

Five Steps to Maximizing Dollars when the Objective is Money

Posted on May 26, 2008
A new article by Angelenos Jeff Krivis and Mariam Zadeh of First Mediation Corporation is worth a read.Published in CPR's Alternatives in February, read Five Steps to Maximizing Dollars when the Objective is Money."... this article synthesizes into Five Steps the intangible elements that factor into the defense perspective when arriving at a settlement...

Settling Significant Cases

Posted on May 25, 2008
Continuing a thread that started with my post When families lose a loved one, do they want the cash or the courthouse? and then continued a week or so ago, Justices seek justice, not peace.The question is whether settlement is the 'civil analogue of plea bargaining'?Now, Michael Moffitt of ADR Prof Blog adds the next chapter in our journey, encouraging us to read Settling Significant Cases by Jeff Seul one time Harvard Law and now of Techlawlife and the Boston office of Holland & Knight...

Making Proposals by Harvard

Posted on May 23, 2008
Click here for the lead article from this month's edition of the Harvard Negotiation Newsletter - something to send to mediation parties as they prepare, or add value to your offering by sending it to attorney gatekeepers for them to give to their clients; Will your proposals hit the mark?[click on the title of this post to read more...

Video clips from Belfast 2008 European Mediation Conference

Posted on May 23, 2008
Peace building ? John Paul Lederach, Professor of International Peacebuilding, on three ways think about peace building.Women, gender and mediation in peacemaking ? Antonia Potter, author of We the Women: why conflict mediation is not just a job for men, why women should contribute to resolution of armed conflict at the highest levels...

Commitment to the process: my lesson today

Posted on May 22, 2008
Always question the guy who sits at the table with a boarding pass sticking out of his shirt pocket.[click on the title of this post to read more...]

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