Blog Archives
National Open Court Data Standards Project Moves to Implementation Phase
June 14, 2020
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. The project, which was supported by the Conference of State Court Administrators and the Joint Technology Committee, sought to create consistent legal definitions for use across jurisdictions. According to the NCSC’s June 10, 2020 @ the Center newsletter: Now the effort...
June 14, 2020
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. The project, which was supported by the Conference of State Court Administrators and the Joint Technology Committee, sought to create consistent legal definitions for use across jurisdictions. According to the NCSC’s June 10, 2020 @ the Center newsletter: Now the effort...
Lawyering Through Covid-19: What We’ve Heard From the Practices
June 13, 2020
On Scaling Legal Advice: Last month I wrote about labor and employment firms scaling legal advice to respond to a surge in demand for their services. This week, Littler Mendelson furthered that trend by rolling out a new technology product designed to conduct in minutes or hours reviews of reductions in force that Scott Forman said used to take days. Forman, a Littler shareholder who founded Littler OnDemand, said the Restructuring Assessment Solution was developed to more quickly...
June 13, 2020
On Scaling Legal Advice: Last month I wrote about labor and employment firms scaling legal advice to respond to a surge in demand for their services. This week, Littler Mendelson furthered that trend by rolling out a new technology product designed to conduct in minutes or hours reviews of reductions in force that Scott Forman said used to take days. Forman, a Littler shareholder who founded Littler OnDemand, said the Restructuring Assessment Solution was developed to more quickly...
Body Language Tips for Effective Communication Over Video Conferencing
June 12, 2020
As communication increasingly moves online, practitioners are becoming more comfortable interacting over video conference. We have all learned basic tips about lighting, mute control, and decluttering your background. These tips, while important fundamentals, only scratch the surface of what is necessary to effectively communicate over video. Effective communication is particularly important for lawyers who are required to not only be competent, but also zealously advocate for their clients. One...
June 12, 2020
As communication increasingly moves online, practitioners are becoming more comfortable interacting over video conference. We have all learned basic tips about lighting, mute control, and decluttering your background. These tips, while important fundamentals, only scratch the surface of what is necessary to effectively communicate over video. Effective communication is particularly important for lawyers who are required to not only be competent, but also zealously advocate for their clients. One...
Mediations, Using Zoom – a Revelation?
June 11, 2020
As a result, in advance of the “mediation day”, I feel I have been able to focus better not only on the substantive issues but on personal dynamics and sensitivities. Of all my learning, though, it’s the intimacy of the meetings on the day which impresses me, whether listening to a party explaining his or her story, or discussing privately with the lawyers as candidly as I have ever done, their negotiating strategy and how I can help them. Sometimes, we have done this in the lawyer’s separate...
June 11, 2020
As a result, in advance of the “mediation day”, I feel I have been able to focus better not only on the substantive issues but on personal dynamics and sensitivities. Of all my learning, though, it’s the intimacy of the meetings on the day which impresses me, whether listening to a party explaining his or her story, or discussing privately with the lawyers as candidly as I have ever done, their negotiating strategy and how I can help them. Sometimes, we have done this in the lawyer’s separate...
Multi-Tier Commercial Dispute Resolution Processes in the United States
June 10, 2020
This chapter examines the landscape of commercial dispute resolution in the United States. Commercial contracts often include tiered or stepped dispute resolution schemes that comprise multiple, varied mechanisms for resolving conflict through an interplay of processes. Contractual relationships are particularly suitable for tiered processes that accommodate the priorities of business. These processes involve increasingly robust intervention by third parties. However, critiques of contractual stepped...
June 10, 2020
This chapter examines the landscape of commercial dispute resolution in the United States. Commercial contracts often include tiered or stepped dispute resolution schemes that comprise multiple, varied mechanisms for resolving conflict through an interplay of processes. Contractual relationships are particularly suitable for tiered processes that accommodate the priorities of business. These processes involve increasingly robust intervention by third parties. However, critiques of contractual stepped...
Reading Body Language Just Got Harder!
June 9, 2020
A recent study published in Psychological Science In the Public Interest by Lisa Feldman Barrett and others revealed that “… on average adults in urban cultures scowled when they were angry 30% of the time. Which means that some 70% of the time they did not scowl when angry.” (Id. at 2.) Rather, they may have scowled because they were concentrating, or after hearing a bad joke, or feeling unwell. (Id. at 2.) A recent article, “The Reason Zoom drains your energy” by Manyu Jiang (April...
June 9, 2020
A recent study published in Psychological Science In the Public Interest by Lisa Feldman Barrett and others revealed that “… on average adults in urban cultures scowled when they were angry 30% of the time. Which means that some 70% of the time they did not scowl when angry.” (Id. at 2.) Rather, they may have scowled because they were concentrating, or after hearing a bad joke, or feeling unwell. (Id. at 2.) A recent article, “The Reason Zoom drains your energy” by Manyu Jiang (April...
Behavioral Ethics, Deception, and Legal Negotiation
June 8, 2020
Research in the field of behavioral ethics finds that much unethical behavior is not the result of conscious amorality. Rather, cognitive and motivational biases enable and even encourage people who consider themselves to be pro-social to act badly without ever recognizing the shortcomings of their behavior. This Article, delivered as the annual Chris Beecroft, Jr. Memorial Lecture on Dispute Resolution at the UNLV Boyd School of Law, explores how the findings of behavioral ethics can help to better...
June 8, 2020
Research in the field of behavioral ethics finds that much unethical behavior is not the result of conscious amorality. Rather, cognitive and motivational biases enable and even encourage people who consider themselves to be pro-social to act badly without ever recognizing the shortcomings of their behavior. This Article, delivered as the annual Chris Beecroft, Jr. Memorial Lecture on Dispute Resolution at the UNLV Boyd School of Law, explores how the findings of behavioral ethics can help to better...
Lawyers Discuss Impacts of COVID-19
June 7, 2020
Robert Shapiro - Glaser Weil, Los Angeles Have you seen a willingness of parties to explore settlement of litigation where that had not previously been on the table on account of a concern for delays and unknowns in the judicial system? “I have—on account of the uncertainties of when and how civil dockets will return to something approaching normal. In particular, litigation strategy has been greatly affected by the uncertainty of when and how civil jury trials can résume, and the large...
June 7, 2020
Robert Shapiro - Glaser Weil, Los Angeles Have you seen a willingness of parties to explore settlement of litigation where that had not previously been on the table on account of a concern for delays and unknowns in the judicial system? “I have—on account of the uncertainties of when and how civil dockets will return to something approaching normal. In particular, litigation strategy has been greatly affected by the uncertainty of when and how civil jury trials can résume, and the large...
Randomness Pre‐Considered: Recognizing and Accounting for “De‐Randomizing” Events When Utilizing Random Judicial Assignment
June 6, 2020
This article contributes to the growing literature challenging the general assumption of and reliance on random judicial assignment by identifying common court procedures and practices that threaten unbiased causal inference. These “de‐randomizing” events, which include differing probabilities of assignment, post‐assignment judicial changes, nonrandom missingness, and nonrandom assignment itself, should be accounted for when making causal claims but are commonly either ignored or not even...
June 6, 2020
This article contributes to the growing literature challenging the general assumption of and reliance on random judicial assignment by identifying common court procedures and practices that threaten unbiased causal inference. These “de‐randomizing” events, which include differing probabilities of assignment, post‐assignment judicial changes, nonrandom missingness, and nonrandom assignment itself, should be accounted for when making causal claims but are commonly either ignored or not even...
Extensive ODR Bibliography
June 5, 2020
The National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution is happy to announce the unveiling of a newly updated extensive Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) bibliography which is available on our website and here. It is wonderful to see so many new partners from the courts, alternative dispute resolution, and many other sectors joining the work of employing ODR worldwide to enhance access to justice in courts and ADR. After more than twenty years, ODR’s relevance to our world...
June 5, 2020
The National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution is happy to announce the unveiling of a newly updated extensive Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) bibliography which is available on our website and here. It is wonderful to see so many new partners from the courts, alternative dispute resolution, and many other sectors joining the work of employing ODR worldwide to enhance access to justice in courts and ADR. After more than twenty years, ODR’s relevance to our world...
