In preparation for next week’s Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association, I have been delighted to get to know a group of judges who will be offering a program on Saturday afternoon, August 7, on the use of ADR in Business Courts. One of them, Judge Steven I Platt of Maryland, maintains an interesting blog to which he has recently contributed a thoughtful article on the “why” of dispute resolution in business courts. Read more »
Many parties in mediation — and many of their counsel — consider that a “win” is a deal that gets them the number they asked for, or close to it. In fact that’s not so, and a mediator provides important value to disputants by assisting them to determine, in a claim that will go to trial in two years and subsequent appeal, what the “right” number is today.
Here are three easy steps towards assisting parties to value their claims.
I had a good chuckle at an article that appears in the current issue of Dispute Resolution International, the journal of the Dispute Resolution Section of the International Bar Association. Daniele Cutolo and Mark Alexander Shalaby discuss a case brought in Italy to test whether an Italian statute requiring mediation prior to certain consumer court proceedings violates Article 6 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, ensuring access to the courts. The lower court found that it did.
Ya gotta smile.
Even those who find American baseball deadly dull will acknowledge the grip the sport has had on the American imagination. Its impact on the American language alone is beyond cavil, and students of the sport have been moved to profound philosophical observations. Now it has contributed to our understanding of conflict management.
“Baseball is like church,” said Dodger manager Leo “the Lip” Durocher, “many attend, few understand.” “It ain’t over ’til it’s over,” Yogi Berra is alleged to have said, along with smackers that capture the core truth of the entertainment industry: ”If people don’t want to come to a ball game, you can’t stop ‘em” and “That restaurant is so crowded nobody goes there any more.” Read more »
