Cyber Week 2015

It's Cyber Week again! This program focuses on trends in the emerging field of "ODR" or online dispute resolution. Anyone can attend this interesting virtual conference on the future of alternative dispute resolution which is sure to be filled with a wealth of webinars, discussion forums and activities. A content rich website, hosted by the ADRhub-Werner Institute at the Creighton University School of Law in Omaha, contains a variety of webinars discussing the integration of technology and dispute resolution. The link below provides access to registration links for the online educational activities this year. Event organizers encourage visitors to review the entire program to ensure not missing a topic that will meet interests of practitioners considering using technology in dispute resolution processes. Some highlights from the program include presentations entitled: Video Mediation, Power of the e-Apology, and a mobile app demonstration by the developer of Picture It Settled, about which I've blogged before. It seems the topics this year are more domestic focused, as international mediators were more interested in this form of mediation at this juncture last year. Curtailing travel costs can be incentive enough to mediate online, but the efficiency of the software in being able to access negotiations at the user’s convenience seems to be the main feature touted in this modern method of settling lawsuits. Amounts in controversy will likely drive the ODR process to lower value cases with a shorter average duration. Efforts in this area have been around for more than a decade, but I'm still not sure ODR is ready for prime time in larger cases where a human element in decision-making is often intangible without parties participating in person. See more here-- http://www.adrhub.com/page/cyberweek-2015

There's an App for that-- Mediation

According to its developer, the PictureItSettled App helps negotiators map successful negotiation strategies, calculate moves, and graph paths to optimum settlements. The app-based software, just launched this year, is designed so litigants analyze their positions. This may not necessarily help the neutral facilitator (who may make actually better use of this as a quick reference record of negotiations). Midpoints are over-emphasized by litigants in my experience, as is bracketing as a tool, though admittedly there are times when looking at these are appropriate. By entering moves, users plot successful negotiation strategies using proprietary algorithms in the app. Currently available on the Apple iOS and Android market in a free application, the "Lite" version tracks the dollar moves in negotiations and time intervals between offers. The app then analyzes the offer history and graphs the effects of such moves on the likelihood of reaching a settlement by testing the patterns on each side. It apparently projects the expected results in measures of dollars and time commitment, which it is claimed assists parties in negotiation visualize if and when they should settle for "optimum outcome." See site: http://bit.ly/wDrU16