Bias

ADR, Bias, Cognitive Bias, Costs in Mediation, Court Procedure and Litigation, Developing the Field, Dispute Resolution, Domestic Courts, Europe, Growth of the Field (Challenges, New Sectors, etc.), Jurisdiction, Lawyers, Legislation, Litigation, mediation as a career, Mediation Reforms (Legislation, etc.), National Mediation Laws, Public Policy, Reform, Scotland, Uncategorized, user perspectives

(University of Strathclyde)/ /Leave a comment

In 2006 Frank Sander produced his ‘Mediation Receptivity Index'(22 Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, 599-618). The MRI would be a way of discerning the extent of ‘mainstreaming’ or ‘institutionalization’ of mediation in different US states. It doesn’t seem to have caught on, but among the questions Sander lists are: PROVIDERS – number of professional…

Bias, Causes of Conflict, Cognitive Bias, Communication, Conflict, General, Practical Challenges for Mediators, Trust

(National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law)/ /Leave a comment

It is the beginning of the school term at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, where in this semester, I teach a Negotiation Workshop. In our first class yesterday, we played a pricing game based on the Prisoner’s Dilemma. There are many versions of this pricing game and it essentially introduces participants to…

Bias, Cognitive Bias, Communication, General, mediation as a career, Memory and Illusions, Mentoring, Perception, Skills, Social Media, Uncategorized, Young Mediators

(Mediator & peace seeker)/ /Leave a comment
Young Mediators Initiative (YMI)

If you haven’t been living under a rock, you may have seen this recent meme in late February that got the internet buzzing with debate. A badly lit photo of a dress spread like wildfire with some people seeing it as white and gold, while others as black and blue. If you haven’t seen it,…

Appointment of Mediators, Availability of Mediators, Bias, Commercial Mediation, Dispute Resolution, Future of mediation, Gender, General, Practical Challenges for Mediators

(Bill Marsh Mediator)/ /14 Comments

This is a blog I have shied away from writing. Several times. Even now, as I do so, I am wary of it. But here goes. I’ll come right out with it. Very few women feature on the lists of “top” commercial mediators. This year’s Who Who Legal World’s Top Ten features precisely….none. Seriously? Come…

Argument, Bias, Clients, Developing the Field, Efficiency, Experts, Lawyers and Psychologists, Legal Practice, Mistakes, Success in mediation

(ADR Center Romania)/ /2 Comments

This article may be helpful particularly if you consider settling a case as a party or as an advisor. There are many perspectives that one can consider when looking at mediation. One example is that our current mediation culture is still in development. Therefore, sometimes, parties ask me, the mediator, to invite the other party…

Arbitration, Bias, Community Mediation, Dispute Resolution, Due Process, Evaluative Mediation, Governments/Public Sector, Ireland

(Sabine Walsh Mediation)/ /1 Comment

At the risk of being accused of being too much of a purist, I just have to have a little grumble about the latest misappropriation of the term mediation. All involved in promoting and encouraging the use of mediation know how one of the largest barriers to people availing of this process is the lack…

Bias, Conventional wisdom, Court Procedure and Litigation, Developing the Field, Dispute Resolution, Future of mediation, Legal Issues, Mediation Lawyering, Mediation Outcomes, Mediation Practice, Practical Challenges for Mediators, Uncategorized, Understanding mediation

(University of Strathclyde)/ /9 Comments

Intellectual life is beset by ‘gap’ problems. Philosophers wrestle with the ‘mind-body problem’: the gap between material and non-material aspects of human existence. All science can be construed as an attempt to bridge the gap between what is and what we can imagine: an inductive corrective to deductive supposition. Roger Cotterrell describes law’s gap problem…

Appointment of Mediators, Below the line, Bias, Clients, Commercial Mediation, Conflict, Conventional wisdom, Creativity, Evaluative Mediation, General, Language, mediation models, Mediation Practice, mediation traditions, Mediation Users/Clients, Mediators’ Conduct, Training, Transformation, Understanding mediation

(Bill Marsh Mediator)/ /7 Comments

Mediators deal in words – not exclusively, but a great deal (and perhaps sometimes too much, but that’s another blog). So it pays for us to think carefully about what words really mean. A couple of years ago, I came across an article entitled “US facilitation yes, mediation no: Omar”. It detailed how Pakistan, through…

Bias, Causes of Conflict, mediation as a career, Mentoring, Practical Challenges for Mediators, Stories

(Sabine Walsh Mediation)/ /Leave a comment

“At these times”, said Dumbledore, indicating the stone basin, “I use the Pensieve. One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one’s mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one’s leisure. It becomes easier to spot patterns and links, you understand, when they are in this form.” (From Harry Potter, by JK Rowling,…

Bias, Causes of Conflict, Communication, General, Language, Mediation Practice, Memory and Illusions, Practical Challenges for Mediators, Skills

(National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law)/ /2 Comments

It is trite that one of key tasks of a mediator is to sort out what Patton, Stone and Heen in their book “Difficult Conversations” refer to as the “What Happened” conversation. Although they write about this and two other conversations in the context of negotiation, their insights are pertinent to mediators as well. One…