Commercial Mediation, Confidentiality and Transparency, Costs in Mediation, Court Procedure and Litigation, Settlement Agreements

(Weiler ADR Inc.)/ /Leave a comment

As Ella Fitzgerald used to sing, Summertime and the livin’ is easy. Your faithful Canadian correspondent knows you are craving mediation-related reading to help you while away those lazy, crazy-hazy days of summer. Four recent Canadian judicial decisions should fill the bill. Supreme Court of Canada encourages Pierringer Agreements. In June the Supreme Court of…

Class action, Court Procedure and Litigation, Football, Mediation Users/Clients, Sport, Success in mediation

(CMS)/ /Leave a comment

Last winter, Rick Weiler and I posted comments on this blog on a mediation success story when the NHL Lockout dispute was successfully resolved. Reporting on the commencement of that mediation, Rick wrote: “one thing for sure, given hockey’s near sacred status in Canada, all eyes will be on this mediation. It may provide a…

Growth of the Field (Challenges, New Sectors, etc.), Improvisation, Stages of mediation, Success in mediation, Tactics

(NZ Centre for ICT Law & School of Law, Auckland University)/ /Leave a comment

This note is a response to, and affirmation of the idea behind Bill Marsh’s provocative notion that the best mediators and negotiators smoke. Of course, in these non-smoking times, we couldn’t possibly agree with the apparent endorsement of smoking and yet the underlying idea Bill conveys is an important one – about the structure of…

ADR, Developing the Field, Dispute Resolution, General, Mentoring, Training, Transformation

(National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law)/ /1 Comment

Last year, I wrote about the Peacemakers’ Initiative and talked a little about its intent, objectives and effect. This year, I want to provide readers, by way of update, a development that is both touching and an indication that things are on the right track. To set the context, the Peacemakers’ Conference is an initiative…

Commercial Mediation, Due Process, General, Instinct, mediation models, Mediation Practice, Mediators’ Conduct, Negotiation, Stages of mediation

(Bill Marsh Mediator)/ /3 Comments

Here is a confession. I have a theory (in the best traditions of Monty Python). It is totally untested. I am pretty certain that it would not survive rigorous, double-blind trials. It may, however, contain some seeds of insight. My theory – wait for it – is that mediations where one or more of the…

Cross-cultural, Developing the Field, Europe, Family Mediation, Future of mediation, Growth of the Field (Challenges, New Sectors, etc.), International Mediation, Ireland

(Sabine Walsh Mediation)/ /1 Comment

Co-Author Lughaidh Kerin, NUI Galway The School of Law, National University of Ireland, Galway hosted in association the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, NUIG and the Irish Centre for International Family Mediation a Conference on Mediation in Cases of International Family Conflict and Child Abduction on a typically damp Saturday in May in the…

'Money-only' Cases, Appointment of Mediators, Business, Clients, Commercial Mediation, Communication, Conventional wisdom, Due Process, Family Mediation, insider and outsider mediators, mediation as a career, mediation traditions, Skills, Stories

(Brick Court Chambers / Clifton Chambers)/ /Leave a comment

Not so long ago I was a claiming party as part of a group of plaintiffs in the stead of my elderly parents in a multiparty, multimillion dollar mediation. Now, I mediate around 120 mediations every year as a commercial mediator here in New Zealand so it was with a mix of personal apprehension and professional curiosity…

Accreditation, ADR, Arbitration, Corporate Counsel's View, Developing the Field, Mediation Users/Clients, Not-for-Profit Organizations (NGO), Reform, Standards

(Corporate counsel & author)/ /Leave a comment

This is the final posting of a 3-part series. Previous posts in the series noted the gathering tempest being whipped up by opacity in ADR practice. How can structural change help the ship steer towards modernity? User demand for more information and higher professional standards in ADR is unequivocal. An international institution is needed to…

Accreditation, ADR, Appointment of Mediators, Arbitration, Commercial Mediation, Confidentiality and Transparency, Corporate Counsel's View, Developing the Field, Dispute Resolution, Growth of the Field (Challenges, New Sectors, etc.), International Mediation

(Corporate counsel & author)/ /Leave a comment

Part 1 of this post touched on rumblings for more transparency in arbitration. But there is more than the distant sound of thunder, and it’s coming closer. As arbitration and mediation are both highly competitive and fragmented fields, it is hard for providers to act collectively. Yet they must. The only forums where arbitration organizations…