Are you doing it online? A lot? Regularly? Just sometimes? Do you talk to others about it or keep it mostly to yourself? And, if you do talk about it, do you just flippantly mention it as a throw-away line that everyone should hear or do you really engage in deep conversations about what it…

Secondary school students also have an important role to play in upholding the rule of law.   The idea of organising a mediation essay competition for secondary school students was mooted in 2019. Despite the covid pandemic, the Mediation Essay Competition 2020 was successfully organised by the Department of Justice, the Education Bureau, Rotary International…

The launch of the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Collaborative Framework by the Asia Pacific Economic Council (APEC) is set to incentivise and conceivably revolutionise commercial dispute resolution across APEC economies. In this posting we explore the Framework, how it works, and why it’s important. What does APEC’s ODR Collaborative Framework seek to achieve? With a…

Online processes in all professions soared during Covid. The legal profession was transformed. A multitude of online mediation platforms miraculously appeared and mediators barely skipped a beat. Benefits emerged – especially in a geographically vast continent like Australia – where advocates and their clients in distant locations saved significant costs in time, travelling expenses and…

As a mediator, have you ever come across a situation where the parties and their respective legal representatives insist to have a face-to-face mediation session with you against a backdrop of sudden rise of confirmed Covid cases in your city to the extent that social distancing measures are being tightened and the Judiciary has announced…

Mediation is a confidential process with an impartial third party (the mediator) assisting the disputing parties to reach a mutually acceptable solution. Skilled mediators are also engaged by potential business partners to assist in the deal-making process. The Hong Kong SAR Government (Hong Kong Government) and in particular the Department of Justice has been promoting…

Setting the scene Having participated in mediations only as a mediator, trying to be polite and respectful while appearing to be confident when actually terrified, I recently found myself participating in a mediation as a supporter of one of the parties, a friend of mine in a difficult situation. Engaging with the mediator The mediator…

For a while now some of my mediations and facilitations have been taking place again in physical spaces, while others remain virtual, as does most of my teaching and training. The effects of Corona are still very much determining how people come together to work. Having got used to the virtual world, I am now…

Conducting mediation and arbitration meetings by remote means is not new to mediators, arbitrators, and practitioners. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person meetings have been replaced with video teleconference. Remote or virtual participation in mediation sessions, arbitration hearings, and even court trials become a new normal. Founded in 2018, eBRAM International Online Dispute…

It is common to hear people observe, reflecting on the pandemic, that things will never go back to the way they were. There is certainly good reason to believe that virtual meetings are now a fact of life. If you “zoom” you are either moving fast or teleconferencing on Zoom, capitalization optional, according to the…