The process of mediation can be utilized to resolve many different types of disputes. A form of mediation that is not often explored is community-police mediation, which is used to resolve citizen complaints against police officers.

There are many famous quotes about the power of juries in a democracy. In our nation, the judiciary is a third branch of government and jury trials are essential to this branch fulfilling its functions.

The National Center for State Courts (“NCSC”) has completed the first phase of a data project that may help the judicial system become more efficient in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

There are a variety of benefits and limitations related to restorative justice that should be considered prior to implementation.

A thesis for the Georgetown University Master of Arts in Conflict Management by Paul Charlton, B.A. titled “Indicators of success: an exploration of successful conflict management in U.S. hospital settings” can be found on the Georgetown University website. The paper examines the definition of success in managing healthcare conflicts. The paper divides conflict into four categories based on the parties involved and introduces a framework for analyzing dynamics of the different conflict management systems used in healthcare. The categories of parties involved include: patient-provider; provider-provider; provider-administration and patient-payer. Literature reviews and interviews with ten conflict management practitioners in the healthcare setting helped Mr. Charlton analyze the four categories and determine key features of the conflicts and the responses to conflict associated with them. The interviews explored “definitions of success, clarified training and research needs, and identified emerging trends in the field”. A summary of the paper states:Important trends in healthcare conflict management identified by the research include a shift away from interest-based negotiation models towards relationship-based approaches to conflict management; a reorientation towards prevention and early intervention, raising expectations that healthcare providers take the lead on conflict engagement and increasingly supplanting third-party intervention models; a push to include conflict management training in health professional schools; and utilization of a nested training-mentoring-communities of practice approach to developing healthcare providers’ conflict management skills. Mr. Charlton’s research includes the suggestions that positive benefit of conflict management in healthcare can be obtained by increasing collaboration between healthcare providers and ADR professionals on training design, integrating conflict management systems with Human Resources and leadership, and ensuring conflict management systems are visible and understood by staff.

by Holly Hayes I recently read the book Ethical Intelligence by Bruce Weinstein, PhD, also known as The Ethics Guy. The subtitle of the book is “Five Principles for Untangling Your Toughest Problems at Work and Beyond”. In Chapter 10, titled “If I Am Not for Myself, Who Will Be? Ethical Intelligence with Yourself” Dr. Weinstein talks about “Five Rules of Engagement” for dealing with anger using ethical intelligence. 1. Stop. Don’t react right away. Take some time to assess what is going on. 2. Breathe deeply. Cooling down will make it easier to come up with a strategy that will succeed. 3. Look at the matter from another point of view. What are all of the possible explanations for why this is happening? 4. Ask, “What response is most likely to be effective?” It probably won’t involve blowing your stack. 5. Get help if need be. The problem may be too big to handle alone. Help can even be in the form of some feedback from another person. The book is based on five overall principles of ethical intelligence: 1. Do No Harm 2. Make Things Better 3. Respect Others 4. Be Fair 5. Be Loving To read more about Ethical Intelligence, see here. Holly Hayes is a mediator at Karl Bayer, Dispute Resolution Expert where she focuses on mediation of health care disputes. Holly holds a B.A. from Southern Methodist University and a Masters in Health Administration from Duke University. She can be reached at: holly@karlbayer.com.