Why Is Commercial Arbitration So Expensive?
Commercial arbitrators often hear litigators and business people complain that arbitration has become just as expensive as litigation. "Why arbitrate when it costs so much? Plus we have to pay the...
View ArticleBearing the Costs of B2C Online Dispute Resolution
Back at the end of the last millennium, the Centre de recherché en droit public (CRDP), along with colleagues from the Centre de recherches informatique et droit (CRID) and the Centre national de la...
View ArticleUnlocking the Potential of Commercial Mediation
A senior commercial litigator who had just completed five days of civil mediation training in BC commented: "That didn't look at all like what I have experienced in mediation!" With a little probing,...
View ArticleThe Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth
I have been an adjudicator for nearly ten years. This experience has given rise to much food for thought. Training a diverse range of adjudicators from a variety of tribunals has caused me to reflect...
View ArticleDo We Need Exclusivity for ODR?
Notwithstanding the fact that, as we mentioned in a previous column, it remains difficult to find a business model that could ensure the availability of a fair and accessible online dispute resolution...
View ArticleBlended Mediation: A Practical Approach to Commercial Dispute Resolution
The debate over the merits of facilitative vs. evaluative mediation never seems to end, but is it an artificial distinction in the mediation of commercial disputes? A recent article in the Australasian...
View ArticleUnlocking the Potential of Commercial Mediation (Part II)
In my last post, I promised to explore how the current commercial mediation model might be “tweaked” to unlock the full potential of mediation. There seemed to be a divide between “interest-based” or...
View ArticleWe Shape Our Hearing Rooms and Afterwards They Shape Us
When the discussion turned to rebuilding the British House of Commons in 1943 (after its destruction on May 10, 1941) Winston Churchill in a simple but profound way stated, "We shape our buildings and...
View ArticleODR and the (BC) Courts
We were recently asked to contribute a chapter on ODR and the Courts to an International treatise on ODR edited by Mohamed S. Abdel Wahab, Ethan Katsh and Daniel Rainey. In researching how Courts could...
View ArticleMandatory Mediation in Commercial Contracts
When my daughters sailed on the tall ships for several summers, the crew had a daily activity called “mandatory fun.” It seems like an oxymoron until you think about it a bit. If you tell people...
View ArticleApology in the Media (Again)
Much has been written about apologies and how they can be effective in resolving conflict. However, two recent events spurred me to tackle this important topic once again and identify lessons that...
View ArticleRecording Hearings: Let’s Be Clear on the Purpose
Some tribunals routinely tape record proceedings while others consistently prohibit it. And within those tribunals that allow tape recording of proceedings, practices on the use of the tape or...
View ArticleA Plea for Court-Sanctioned ODR
[Sean Dwyer assisted in the preparation of this column.] Like many others, we have, on this blog and elsewhere, claimed that online dispute resolution (ODR) platforms and processes constitute an...
View ArticleDeath Knell for the National Banking Ombudsman?
The federal government has announced proposed regulations that will allow banks to opt out of a national customer ombudsman service in favour of private ADR services that they will choose and pay for....
View ArticleThe Most Successful Court Mediators Are Not Necessarily Lawyers – and Other...
Mediation is gaining popularity in Canada but promotion of mediation is still mostly anecdotal. To develop further, the field needs a more solid foundation of deep empirical research. Mediate BC is...
View ArticleMaking a First Impression: The Role of Opening Statements in Hearings
You only get one chance to make a first impression, as the saying goes. A recent study has confirmed that first impressions are persistent and can be difficult to overcome. The opening statement of the...
View ArticleApple v. Samsung — Who’s the Big Loser Here?
The worldwide patent litigation between Apple Corporation and Samsung Electronics is a perfect illustration of the “lose-lose” nature of high-stakes IP litigation. While the headlines have focused on...
View ArticleDon’t Be Afraid of ODR
Although ODR is gathering much support among consumer associations, governments, and private enterprise, lawyers and members of the judiciary seem to be the most outspoken critics of the use of...
View ArticleShould We Take the "Resolution" Out of Conflict Resolution?
I had the privilege of attending Bernard Mayer's two day workshop on Vancouver Island last month. Bernie is one of the pioneers and visionaries in the conflict resolution field and his two most recent...
View ArticleThe Exclusion of Witnesses: Redundant in a Wired World?
The open court principle has repeatedly been confirmed by the Supreme Court as a “hallmark of a democratic society” (Vancouver Sun, [2004] 2 S.C.R. 332, at para. 23), most recently in A.B. v. Bragg...
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