Because Michigan’s courts are all but closed during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, if you need to adjourn in-person mediations and arbitrations, you should do so; everyone will understand and undoubtedly support that decision. But if you need to proceed with your mediation or arbitration in a safe environment, and there aren’t other reasons against it, then “remote” ADR using videoconferencing is a viable option. In fact, we can all anticipate an increase in online mediation and arbitration proceedings using digital platforms over the next few months.
Discovery and discovery disputes are two of the most significant drivers in the cost of litigation. Effective January 1, 2020, who and how litigants resolve discovery issues under the court rules is changing in Michigan. With the addition of a new provision – MCR 2.411(H) – the Michigan Supreme Court ordered: “The parties may stipulate to or the court may order the mediation of discovery disputes….”
On October 31, 2018, I will be participating in a workshop to help ADR practitioners improve their skills and techniques.
The program – EFFECTIVE ADR ADVOCACY: Learn Expert Tips from Judges and Professional ADR Providers – will feature a faculty including Michigan Supreme Court Justice Bridget Mary McCormack; Kent County Judges Kathleen A. Feeney (Family Division), David M. Murkowski (Chief Judge, Probate Court), and Christopher P. Yates (Business Court), and three other ADR experts from Professional Resolution Experts of Michigan (PREMi).
Please consider attending this unique opportunity to hear from the Justice, the Judges and the ADR experts from PREMi. For more information and to register, click here.
With increasing frequency (often during a mediation) we hear the refrains: “There are just some people I can’t talk to” or “They just don’t listen to reason.” The polarization of society into the “right” and “wrong” camps is undoubtedly a contributory factor to the reticence to engage in difficult but critically important conversations.
While a fascinating social development, the inability to have productive difficult conversations is all too often self-defeating and counterproductive to important negotiations, including those that take place during mediations. A sine qua non of many successful and mutually beneficial business negotiations is truly engaging in positive conflict resolution through knowing how to have difficult conversations effectively.
The well-recognized psychological phenomenon known as “commitment to decision” or “escalation of commitment” poses a significant challenge to decision makers and negotiators. Once the commitment to decision hardens, otherwise intelligent and perceptive negotiators become increasingly entrenched in the continued pursuit of an original decision that from all objective data is doomed to failure.
