Wednesday February 3, 2010 at 1:56pm
Recently Emma Harte of Resolution wrote to the Law Society Gazette commenrting on the success of family cout based mediation.
She observed.
"The story ‘Family mediation pilot achieves mixed results’ (news, 7 January) suggested that court-based mediation in the pilot scheme had disappointing results. Given the context in which these mediations occurred, the opposite is true, and the pilot actually looks like a remarkable success story. The pilot involved cases that were so diff....
Monday January 25, 2010 at 9:28am
According to press reports the TUC will continue to help negotiations between British Airways and Unite. It appears the first walk out from staff will take place from 1st March 2010.
I have previously written about the dispute.
Quite frankly there are a number of fundamental flaws in the approach to negotiation which make it more difficult for the parties to settle.
These include:
1 Less is more. The parties are involved in continious and never-ending negotiati....
Friday January 22, 2010 at 10:18am
As a lawyer and mediator there are always on the web some great online resouces to consider.
Some of the best mediation blogs include Settle It Now and Mediation Channel.
Also on the blogs is respected mediator, Amanda Bucklow who also identifies on her blog that she recommends reading The New Lawyer: How Settlement is Transforming the Practice of Law by Julie Macfarlane.
As the preamble to this book observes, the image of the adversarial "client warrior" dominates historical notio....
Tuesday January 19, 2010 at 3:31pm
Despite the increased interest of mediation within employment lawyers, human resource professionals and their clients, there is still resistance to the use of mediation.
A lot of this can be underpinned by ignorance or lack of experience in use of mediation. One leading employment lawyer told me that he would like to refer matters to mediation but the clients are very resistant.
In addition, there is still a lack of legal incentive to use mediation. The Gibbons Review does represent ....
Friday January 8, 2010 at 11:44am
According to recent press reports, a senior member of the Chinese negotiation team at the Copenhagen cliamate talks has been removed from his post.
The person in question is He Yafei and the source of the information is the Xinhau newsagency.
Oh to blame someone after a failed negotiation. I have seen it many times and the Chinese who always run the risk of being the villains are in the frame.
The allegations against the negotiatior include:
1 He was rude to the US n....
Friday October 16, 2009 at 4:29pm
As Personnel Today points out the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has accused Royal Mail management of bullying and harassing postal workers as the war of words ahead of next week's strikes heats up. In a letter to Royal Mail chief Mark Higson, CWU leader Dave Ward claimed "unagreed HR procedures" were being used in an attempt to bully employees into agreeing to changes to working practices. The CWU said these referred to the firm ignoring pre-determined steps that any employee must ....
Tuesday October 13, 2009 at 3:26pm
As Local Authority News reports, thirteen districts in Essex have joined the county council to form a new partnership to provide legal services.
The context is that all public services face a major challenge in the years ahead, as resources become scarcer – and local government will feel this as acutely as any. Essex Legal Services Partnership has created a new model for local government services, which enables the teams to improve services to clients and communities. The new way o....
Tuesday August 18, 2009 at 2:35pm
There is an excellent article written by Alex Locke for the ELA Briefing on the issue of employment judicial mediation.
We now learn via Alex the following.
There are very few employment judges trained as mediators. In one of the London regions only two judges have been trained.
There appears to be inadequte facitiies such as more than 1 room available.
There is a lack of guidance given to parties which prohibits the judges from giving a steer to the parties.
Oh dear.
First of all....
Tuesday July 7, 2009 at 5:54am
I read on a Chicago that the down economy is boosting mediation firms as more Chicago-area companies look to cut litigation costs. A practice long associated with personal injury, product liability and property damage suits is becoming more popular as a way to resolve commercial disputes. The trend also is getting a boost from an increasing number of construction, employment and other contracts that contain clauses specifying that disputes be mediated. Courts also are nudging more cases to media....
Sunday July 5, 2009 at 3:38pm
Ambrose Evans-Pricthard of the Telegraph writes:
"The shocker last week was not just that the US lost 467,000 jobs in May, but also that time worked fell 6.9pc from a year earlier, dropping to 33 hours a week. "At no time in the 1990 or 2001 recessions did we ever come close to seeing such a detonating jobs figure," said David Rosenberg from Glukin Sheff. "We have lost a record nine million full-time jobs this cycle." Earnings have fallen at a 1.6pc annual rate ov....
Monday June 29, 2009 at 8:09am
There is a very intersting piece in a recent edition of the Guardian.
As Timothy Garton Ash writes a "surprising number of people still harbour the illusion that our leaders know what they are doing. Well, some of the time, some of them do. But if you meet them, you will often be horrified at what they don't know. And you will be amazed how superficial, arbitrary and personal can be the grounds on which they make world-changing decisions. Most readers may not be startled to learn that abou....
Monday June 1, 2009 at 8:55am
Mediation is no panacea but The Salt Lake Tribune (of all things) has an example of how a good mediator can do the business in even the most complex disputes.As this article shows, a mediator was able to engineer a mediated settlement in a very difficult matter.43 lawyers were packed into a hotel conference room last November. And that was just the defendants' legal corps in three wrongful-death and personal-injury civil lawsuits triggered by the 2007 American Crandall Canyon mine disaster.....
Monday May 18, 2009 at 9:41am
Human Law Mediation has just published a new FREE White Paper - Negotiating for Excellent Results.
It's a must read for anyone trying to get the best out of business transactions or facing difficult negotiations with employees, customers or suppliers.As well as providing a 10 step plan for effective negotiations which enable you to negotiate with power and persuasion the White Paper has useful advice on when to try and negotiate yourself and when to step away and seek professional help.
....
Thursday February 12, 2009 at 12:13pm
As was reported in the Law Society Gazette last month, "Proposals for a regulation regime for mediation faltered last week when mediators told the Civil Mediation Council (CMC) they need more time to consider ‘ambitious’ plans. However members of the organisation, which represents civil and commercial mediators, approved a scheme to register workplace mediators to meet the needs of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. The scheme will go live early in th....
Tuesday February 10, 2009 at 3:13pm
A brief mention of mediation in the Law Society Gazette. "Personal injury mediation will gain in popularity as a result of the credit crunch, according to a leading provider. Maurice Nichols, mediator and consultant to the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution’s personal injury unit (PIU), said: ‘There are always two important drivers to personal injury litigation – the claimant wants to see an end to his case and get his compensation as quickly as possible – and s....