How Clients Think: The Brains Behind Decision Making, Part 2
This series of blog posts about how clients make decisions may help in guiding a client before, during and after a mediation. Some of the peculiarities of decision making can be explained at least in part by neuroscience, which had its roots not so much in the observation of everyday decision making, but in the observation of aberrant behavior. Neuroscience is defined as a branch of the life sciences that deals with the anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, or molecular biology of nerves and nervous tissue and especially with their relation to behavior and learning. It began in 1848 as a result of a terrible work-related accident suffered by railroad construction foreman Phineas Gage. Gage had a metal rod stuck in his…
Read More ›Ate, Shot & Left
“The rule is: the word ‘it’s’ (with apostrophe) stands for ‘it is’ or ‘it has’. If the word does not stand for ‘it is’ or ‘it has’ then what you require is ‘its’. This is extremely easy to grasp. Getting your itses mixed up is the greatest solecism in the world of punctuation. No matter that you have a Ph.D and have read all of Henry James twice. If you still persist in writing, ‘Good food at it’s best’, you deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave.” – Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (2003) Okay, perhaps the punishment Ms. Truss proposes for misplaced…
Read More ›On Perfecting the Arbitration Submission
Help your client save money and help focus your arbitrator’s attention by avoiding unnecessary, disorganized and duplicative submissions. When you meet with opposing counsel in advance of the final arbitration hearing to review issues, witness lists and exhibits, put together a core evidence compilation that will serve as the primary evidentiary submission. Having multiple parties submit the same evidence, perhaps in different order or form, can needlessly extend the time needed for review of the evidence, thus driving up arbitration costs. Where there are disagreements about what is to be submitted, coordinate and submit only one version of what you can. Taking the time to do that will not only reduce costs, it will also help in your preparation, and…
Read More ›How Clients Think: The Brains Behind Decision Making, Part 1
To make their work more effective and efficient, lawyers require some basic understanding of why their clients make the decisions they do and how to better respond and help. There is no need to become a neuroscientist, but some knowledge of this discipline is desirable. Also, we at least can explore some of the factors that drive the decision-making process in broad terms, emphasizing the cognitive aspects but also delving into economic principles and behavioral psychology. This series of blog posts may help in guiding a client before, during and after a mediation. Principles of economics come into play in what is known as utility theory. Premised on the assumption that people behave rationally in decision making, utility theory assumes…
Read More ›ODR: Beyond Scratches on the Cave Walls, Part II
A leading consortium of academics, business executives, law firms and dispute resolution professionals are collaborating on a new and exciting online dispute resolution initiative, according to a recent article, “Moving Arbitration Online: The Next Frontier” (bit.ly/14IH5xO) by Colin Rule and Beth Trent of the International Institute of Conflict Resolution (CPR). “CPR has partnered with Modria (Rule’s online dispute resolution technology company) …. to build the first end-to-end online arbitration process that fully complies with the requirements of the New York Convention,” the authors say. “This platform can work fully online, or hybrid online-offline, and it offers robust document management and integrated payments. CPR has developed customized, streamlined rules to govern this online process, and all cases will be heard by CPR neutrals…
Read More ›ODR: Beyond Scratches on the Cave Walls, Part I
As recently as last year, the idea prevailed that the field of online dispute resolution is in its “scratches on the cave walls” phase. At a 2012 meeting of the International Academy of Mediation at Harvard, Colin Rule discussed a futuristic view of consumer dispute resolution, patterned upon the e-Bay and Pay Pal systems he had developed while an officer with those companies. Rule, now CEO of the online dispute resolution technology company Modria, repeated the assessment he promoted in his 2002 book, “Online Dispute Resolution for Business,” that we are still in the primitive stages of development in this field. However, we now have a glimpse of what may be achievable in online dispute resolution (Rule dubs it ODR): Massive numbers of low-dollar…
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