Effective January 2, 2019, the Judicial Branch of the State of Connecticut has formally entered the world of virtual mediation with the introduction of a pilot in the Judicial Districts of Hartford and New Haven to help resolve contract collection cases.  More accurately, it has entered the world of Online Dispute Resolution (“ODR”).  ODR started…

With increasing frequency, Mediation is being utilized to resolve civil disputes.  The reluctance of parties and attorneys to utilize the services of a neutral third party to facilitate settlement negotiations is slowly fading away and mediation is becoming an accepted part of the administration of civil disputes.  As mediation has become more acceptable, the dialogue…

“Should employees and employers be allowed to agree that any disputes between them will be resolved through one-on-one arbitration? Or should employees always be permitted to bring their claims in class or collective actions, no matter what they agreed with their employers?”

These are the questions that the U.S. Supreme Court answered in the decision…

It is not uncommon that after a long day mediating a dispute, the parties finally come to a resolution.  It is also not uncommon that the parties’ Memorandum of Settlement expressly provides that the same mediator resolve any lingering issues to finalize the parties’ settlement. A very interesting decision from the Maine Supreme Court illustrates…

As the popularity of mediation increases, it becomes increasingly important for mediation advocates to know what they are getting into. No single mediator or mediation session is the same as another. The flexibility of mediation is one of its strengths because for every dispute, there will be a variety of mediation alternatives. The only uniformity…

In a recent article entitled Gerry Spence, Marshall McLuhan, and What Lawyers Do In Mediation (https://www.mediate.com/articles/PressmanA1.cfm) noted mediator Arthur Pressman details the different roles available to attorneys in mediation. He compares the popular US-style mediation to what he calls the “international-style” mediation in Europe. At the Vienna IBA/VIAC Joint Mediation Competition (VIAC is…

In three cases pending before the United States Supreme Court in the upcoming term, the Court will address whether employees can be forced to arbitrate class action employment law claims. The three cases, involving Murphy Oil, Epic Systems and Ernst & Young, highlight the two sides of the debate that have split the Circuit Court…