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Nursing Focus on Conflict Engagement

By Holly Hayes - March 9, 2012

by Holly Hayes The American Nurse, the official publication of the American Nurses Association, published the article The Art of Engagement: Nurses, ANA work to address conflict. Here is an excerpt: Engage in conflict? Many nurses would rather head for the hills, or at least down the hall. But at Gundersen Lutheran Health System, nurses are being asked to face conflict head on to create a better workplace and ensure safer patient care. “In genera

Texas Lawyer: Family Law Council Files Rare Amicus Over Mediation Issue

By Victoria VanBuren - January 26, 2012

We found this interesting story in Texas Lawyer about a mediated settlement agreement: For the first time in 25 years, the State Bar of Texas Family Law Council has filed an amicus curiae brief in an appeal pending before the Texas Supreme Court. The council submitted the brief on Jan. 9, urging the Supreme Court to grant a mandamus to force a family law judge to approve a mediated settlement agreement (MSA) in a custody dispute. The judge in tha

2011 Disputing Contributors

By Victoria VanBuren - December 29, 2011

During 2011, Disputing was honored to receive significant contributions from law professors and respected practitioners. Some of our blog contributors wrote guest-posts, others submitted comments via e-mail, and yet others alerted us of important developments in the ADR area. Thanks to our blog contributors for improving Disputing‘s legal scholarship! Special thanks to professor S.I. Strong for writing a whopping number of blog posts! Here are ou

Federal Circuit Unveils Model Order on E-Discovery in Patent Cases

By Victoria VanBuren - October 3, 2011

To address the problem of excessive costs of the discovery process, particularly in patent litigation, the Advisory Council of the Federal Circuit created recently a task force to draft a model rule for e-discovery governance. The final product, “Model Order on E-Discovery in Patent Cases” was unveiled on September 27 by Chief Judge Randall R. Rader at the 2011 E.D. Texas Bench and Bar Conference. The goal of the Model Order, Chief Ju

Federal Court Orders Arbitration of Claims in BP Oil Spill Case

By Victoria VanBuren - September 12, 2011

As readers may already know, litigation surrounding the “Deep Water Horizon” oil spill is well underway. In a later twist, a federal trial court in Louisiana granted a motion to stay litigation between Anadarko and BP and ordered the parties to arbitrate pursuant to an arbitration clause found in their Joint Operating Agreement. See In RE: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig. BP had filed a motion to compel arbitration, however, Anadarko respond

Jones v. Halliburton/KBR: Trial Begins, Not Arbitration

By Victoria VanBuren - June 25, 2011

As the Wall Street Journal reports, Jamie Leigh Jones' trial has began in Houston. Jones v Halliburton/KBR is an employment arbitration case with tragic facts that made the national headlines, including a story by the National Public Radio (NPR). Jones claims that in July 2005, four days after she arrived to work in Iraq, she was gang raped by seven co-workers.

Is Mediation Confidential in Texas?

By Victoria VanBuren - June 17, 2011

By Brett Goodman The Texas ADR Act, provides for very broad confidentiality in mediation procedures. Section 154.073 states in relevant portion that: (a) Except as provided by Subsections (c), (d), (e), and (f), a communication relating to the subject matter of any civil or criminal dispute made by a participant in an alternative dispute resolution procedure, whether before or after the institution of formal judicial proceedings, is confidential,

Article | An Empirical Analysis of Collaborative Practice

By Beth Graham - April 27, 2011

John Lande, Director of the LLM Program in Dispute Resolution and Isidor Loeb Professor at the University of Missouri School of Law, recently published An Empirical Analysis of Collaborative Practice, Family Court Review, Vol. 49, pp. 257-281, April 2011; University of Missouri School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2011-10. In his article, Professor Lande summarizes empirical studies conducted to date on collaborative practice. The publi

Law Review Article | Keeping a Secret from Yourself? Confidentiality When the Same Neutral Serves Both as Mediator and as Arbitrator in the Same Case

By Beth Graham - April 11, 2011

Kristen Blankley, Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law recently authored and interesting and useful article entitled Keeping a Secret from Yourself? Confidentiality When the Same Neutral Serves Both as Mediator and as Arbitrator in the Same Case, Baylor Law Review, Forthcoming. In her article, Professor Blankley examines the process of med-arb from a confidentiality and privilege standpoint. Here is the abstract: As th

Conflict Engagement in Healthcare

By Holly Hayes - April 1, 2011

by Holly Hayes Karl Bayer and I taught a three-hour course at the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) national meeting in Chicago last week. Our topic: Introducing Conflict Resolution Skills in Health Care. We summarized how conflict is viewed in the health care setting, reviewed a cost of conflict calculator, and used case studies from Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury, The Power of a Positive No by William Ury, and Bey