Category Archives: Uncategorized

Too Many Standards of Conduct?

May 29, 2012 – 3:39 pm

Too Many Standards of Conduct? History of Michigan’s Standards of Conduct for Mediators The State Court Administrative office convened a committee a couple years ago to review Michigan’s Standards of Conduct for Mediators and recommend any needed changes. Michigan’s Standards were adopted in 2001, based on the Model Standards of Conduct for Mediators of general […]

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“Dispute” or “Conflict”?

April 28, 2012 – 10:53 am

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” […]

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Paying the Mediator

March 3, 2012 – 4:00 pm

One of the conundrums for us alternative dispute resolution folk is what to do when a party does not pay us for services performed. We tout the disadvantages of suing, but what other recourse do we have when a party breaches its contract to pay the mediator? It would be appropriate for us to mediate […]

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W(h)ither Case Evaluation?

February 15, 2012 – 8:59 pm

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 […]

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Article on New Confidentiality Court Rule

January 13, 2012 – 2:36 pm

An article that I wrote for the State Bar ADR Section’s newsletter on the new court rule on confidentiality in mediation has now been published in its January 2012 edition. The court rule went into effect last September, and we are still trying to figure out how to integrate it into our mediation practice–specifically, how […]

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