Community disputes can present dynamics far more complex than a lawsuit or mediation session. Solutions require consensus building, a process that empowers engaged residents to take ownership of the situation and start a conversation that continues to grow within the community. Communities, educational institutions, governmental bodies—any group can learn to use innovative approaches to resolve conflict.

In the Hudson River-bank village of Piermont,

By: Kelly Turner, Esq., Senior Counsel, AAA^® and John Bishop, Vice President, Commercial Division, AAA

An arbitrator typically has the duty to disclose any circumstance likely to give rise to justifiable doubt as to the arbitrator’s impartiality or independence.  Arbitrators face a difficult challenge when trying to make the “perfect” disclosure, balancing the need for completeness and transparency against protecting the confidentiality of prior arbitrations and mediations and of entities not part of the current proceeding. 

In writing disclosures,

Purposeful Preparation: The 10 Essential Mediator Skills
By: Harold Coleman, Jr., Esq., CCA, Senior Vice President, AAA-ICDR^®; Executive Director/Mediator, AAA Mediation.org^®

Mediation Mind Shifts are the critical, incremental shifts in thinking that must occur to move people embroiled in conflict from entrenched, diametrically opposed positions at the outset of mediation toward the goal of resolution at the end. 

Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, the AAA-ICDR^® supported parties’ options to utilize virtual arbitrations and mediations. With the closing of hearing rooms, however, virtual became the only option. 

Acceptance began slowly, from just 17 virtual “events” in March 2020, growing by an enormous 4,100+% by March 2021. “Events” are defined here as settlement conferences, preliminary hearings, pre-mediation conferences, mediation sessions, and evidentiary hearings—points reached along the way on the arbitration and mediation roadmaps from initiation of a case to