With apologies to the U.S. Postal Service, I just took another step towards electronic-only correspondence: for the first time, I sent out information to mediation parties solely via email. Until now*, I have always followed up the email and attachments with a printed paper version sent via U.S. mail. This time, with the attorneys’ consent, I […]

I have always used the words “conflict” and “dispute” inter-changeably. The dictionary definitions seem to show, as law school professors would say, a distinction without a difference. So I am grateful to Brian Muldoon of HeartWorks Mediation Center, keynote speaker at this year’s ANDRI, for offering a way to distinguish them: He says a “dispute” […]

The dispute resolution process now known as “case evaluation” has been used by Michigan courts for forty years to settle litigated cases, but it is now on the far side of the bell curve in terms of its effectiveness. The basic concept seems sound: have a team of three outside attorneys review the case and […]