The Los Angeles Superior Court system will launch a free online dispute resolution program next week for litigants in small-claims cases in an effort to settle the disputes without traveling to a courthouse, the court’s presiding judge announced Thursday.
Read moreDTCI: For better or worse, Zoom has changed the practice of law
In my last director’s column, published one year ago this week, I wrote about the importance of relationships. Less than a month later, we were forced to retreat into our homes and away from our colleagues, friends and extended family. How’s that for timing?
One of the more interesting side effects of COVID-19, apart from the loss of taste and smell, is how the pandemic has accelerated trends such as the rise in remote work and the shift toward a life lived increasingly online. COVID has been great for Amazon, Zoom and Netflix. Not so much for concert promoters and commercial real estate owners.
Read moreMediation in a virtual world
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new challenges to all manner of dispute resolution. Whether it is becoming accustomed to addressing a judge from your bedroom via Zoom, taking instruction from your client on WhatsApp, or trying to guess your opponent’s hobbies from their home office bookshelves, the new world of remote-working has brought new difficulties and forms of workplace and entertainment in equal measure. What has not changed, however, is the demand from parties to resolve their disputes expeditiously and efficiently, including through mediation. This begs the question: how do mediations and practitioners need to adapt in this brave new world? It is likely to be here to stay, so here are five top tips for surviving and getting the most from a virtual mediation.
Read moreHow Can We Best Make and Maintain Quality Mediators?
It was during late March 2020, soon after the pandemic first made global headlines, that a group of leading mediators and mediation trainers realized on a Zoom call that the ONLY mediation then taking place in the U.S. and around the world was suddenly "online mediation." Further, we also realized that ALL mediation training was also then remarkably taking place online. Further, despite this near complete shift of mediation services and training to the online environment, we also realized that there were barely any standards, guidance or established best practices for online mediation and online mediation training. We decided that we owed it to ourselves and to the global mediation community to explore whether this void can be effectively addressed.
Read moreReflections on Remote Mediation
The lockdown has represented something of mixed blessing to proponents of mediation.
The lockdown has represented something of mixed blessing to proponents of mediation. On the one hand, stasis in the court system has presented an opportunity for all remote forms of ADR. On the other hand, the prospect of getting to grips with the technology was a pretty daunting one for those of us who struggled even to turn on a microphone at the beginning of last year! Ten months down the line, as we find ourselves back in lockdown, this seems a good point at which to reflect on the experience of conducting remote family mediations.
Read moreHow Well Does Online Dispute Resolution Help Resolve Lawsuits Outside the Courtroom?
The pandemic forced courts to embrace new technologies as social-distancing requirements prevented access to courthouses, and processes from filing paperwork to holding hearings moved online. But March 2020 was not the first time that courts considered technology adoption. For example, many had already started digitizing their processes for resolving civil disputes.
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