Future of AI in ADR

For Mediation Week 2025, I will recount my observations from attending the American Arbitration Association's (AAA) Future of Dispute Resolution Conference in New York, dealing with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Taking place at Cardozo Law School in conjunction with the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR) and sponsored by the Practising Law Institute (PLI), this dynamic conference with Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) professionals, lawyer advocates, in-house counsel, programmers and developers explored how AI is transforming arbitration, mediation, and online dispute resolution (ODR). Legaltech innovators, institutional leaders and practitioners had quite interactive debates, a live demonstration of AAA's upcoming AI-trained construction arbitration product being launched next month (still requiring human oversight), and some real-world case studies. Humans are not being replaced, rather augmented in their skills and time management. Experience in the field cannot be simply replaced by machine, though AI's influence on dispute prevention cannot be understated. It will impact process, integrity, ethics and certainly case resolution outcomes. At the conclusion of the program, online dispute resolution pioneer, Colin Rule, opined that AI was really better suited as a tool to help both parties and neutrals in mediation, moreso than arbitration. The Future Dispute Resolution New York Hackathon the following day was hosted at AAA in Manhattan and included the Wolters Kluwer Arbitration digital experience team. This collaborative workshop paired neutrals with staff technologists and coders. Guided by product designers, engineers, and user experience (UX) experts, we collaborated forming interdisciplinary teams to identify practical pain points in the dispute resolution lifecycle and to rapidly prototype technology solutions from dispute prevention alerting tools to court service portals for self-represented entrepreneurs. Building on the success of the Future Dispute Resolution Hague Hackathon, our teams brainstormed in the morning and developed next-gen ADR demos in the afternoon, aiming to make dispute resolution processes faster, more equitable, and less expensive. The presentations from nine teams at the end of the day were quite impressive, given the compressed time to develop apps. Our team created "NeutralLens" an AI product for more efficiently distilling document submissions. For accuracy, our team utilized a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) an AI framework that enhances a large language model (LLM) by allowing it to retrieve relevant information from an external knowledge base to produce more up-to-date and trustworthy responses. It was all very inspiring and we hope will lead to a better experience for those utilizing ADR to get better access to justice outside the court system. See more here-- https://go.adr.org/2025-future-of-dispute-resolution-hackathon and https://www.adr.org/news-and-insights/ai-in-construction-disputes/

ADR Section St. Pete Retreat

Please join fellow members of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of The Florida Bar later this month in beautiful St. Pete at the Hyatt Place–St. Petersburg-Downtown for their annual retreat weekend. This active section which includes certified civil and family mediators, qualified arbitrators and other attorneys looking to learn more about being effective utilizing ADR processes is now celebrating its fifteenth year! I have been honored to serve as an emeritus member of the Executive Council after serving two terms. This is a great opportunity to become more involved in the leadership of the profession and to help guide processes such as important rulemaking at the state level. The tentative schedule for the program is as follows: Friday, August 22, 2025: Happy Hour at Hyatt Place (4:00 p.m. -6:00 p.m.) Dinner at Oak and Stone (following Happy Hour) Saturday, August 23, 2025: CLE/CME Presentations at Hyatt Place (9:00 a.m. -11:00 a.m.) Lunch Provided at Hyatt Place (12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Executive Council Meeting (1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Off-Site Dinner and/or Team Event (TBD) This year's event will include some focus on the evolution of Nonbinding Arbitration in Florida that is increasingly being employed by many circuits to cull the court dockets still backlogged from the pandemic. Special rate room block booking cutoff is August 11th. More information here-- https://flabaradr.com/events/the-adr-section-annual-retreat/ Sign form up here-- https://tinyurl.com/ecbk94zf

Revised Guidelines For FL Phased Court Operations

 

This week, the Supreme Court of Florida amended guidelines for the four-phased timeline that will govern the return to normal statewide court operations. The four phases were established in prior orders issued since the state courts began pandemic operations in March, all based on recommendations of a COVID-19 Workgroup and general public health guidelines. The Workgroup’s mission is to find ways for courts to operate as fully as possible during each phase of the pandemic. The Workgroup is chaired by Ninth Circuit Judge Lisa Munyon from Orlando. The amendments pertain to the so-called Comprehensive Measures and the Public Health & Safety Precautions that provide standards for pandemic operations in the state courts. They make the following major changes: 1) Provide updated criteria for the transition to different phases 2) Require a human resources policy at each court to address potential COVID-19 exposure of court employees and judges 3) Update health screening criteria for entry into a courthouse  4) Provide updated guidance for courts in monitoring local conditions and public health data when expanding in-person proceedings and 5) Provide a methodology to determine deteriorating local health conditions that would require an amendment to a local operational plan or a return to an earlier phase. Florida’s courts have been operating under emergency guidelines since March when the court suspended jury trials and took other actions restricting potential disease spreading activities in the state courts. Some limited jury trials have resumed in parts of the state using remote technology for all or part of the proceedings (refer to my prior post) See more in revision 6 of the COVID-19 admin order here-- https://tinyurl.com/yywqmeb6

ADR Part of Long-Range Plan for FL Courts

A long-range strategic plan for Florida's Judicial Branch from 2016 to 2021 is available, published by the Judicial Management Council. It finds that Florida’s people depend on their court system to make fair, reliable, and prompt case decisions. The administration of justice requires deliberate attention to each case, a well-defined process to minimize delay, and the appropriate use of limited resources. It emphasizes the importance of our judicial branch in implementing practices which utilize resources effectively, efficiently, and in an accountable manner while continuing its commitment to fairness and impartiality. It specifically aims to promote the use of innovative and effective problem-solving courts and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes, such as mediation and arbitration. The report finds Florida’s courts are committed to equal access to justice for all. However, litigation costs, communication barriers, lack of information, complexity, biases, and physical obstructions can create difficulties for those seeking to access the courts to obtain relief. Therefore, it concludes the judicial branch must strive to identify and remove real or perceived barriers to better provide meaningful access to the courts. The judicial branch’s legal authority is a grant by the people, and public trust and confidence in the judicial branch is at the heart of maintaining a democratic society. Promoting public trust and confidence in the courts, it says, enhances the effectiveness of court actions, strengthens judicial impartiality, and improves the ability of courts to fulfill their mission. Finally, it resolves that improved communication, collaboration, and education efforts will better inform the public about the judicial branch’s role, mission, and vision. See more in report here-- http://bit.ly/2fE4ITI

Mediation Week 2015

Since 2011, the American Bar Association (ABA) has declared the third week of October “ABA Mediation Week.” The ABA events bolster efforts of many other national, state, and local organizations, including the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR), which have traditionally celebrated conflict resolution during October. According to the ABA, Mediation Week celebrates strides made in institutionalizing mediation as one of several dispute resolution processes. For many years, Florida has led the field of alternative dispute resolution which has grown in acceptance, especially as litigation has become more costly and lengthy with electronic discovery. There is certainly wide recognition that the majority of cases are resolved outside of the traditional adversarial process. Litigants, their attorneys and the judges they appear before routinely embrace multiple paths to settling lawsuits out of court, including mediation. The theme for this year’s ABA Mediation Week is: Mediation: Successes, Challenges, Trends and the Next Generation: Looking to the past, present and future. "As lawyers and mediators, we understand both the challenges and rewards of helping parties in conflict reach an agreement by getting past differences in positions, by understanding each other’s perspectives better, and by finding ways to get their important interests met while staying true to their values and belief systems." Programs held during ABA Mediation Week provide neutrals, advocates and policy makers with inspiration and tools necessary to bridge the gap that often prevents amicable resolution of disputes. This year’s theme seeks to recognize the past, present and future of mediation. Read more here-- http://www.americanbar.org/groups/dispute_resolution/resources/mediation_week_toolkit.html

Cyber-everything

This week featured Cyber Monday and, in case you missed it, last month we had Cyberweek 2014 for "ODR" or online dispute resolution professionals. This interesting virtual conference on the future of alternative dispute resolution was 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 the activities that took place this year. The 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: A Panel Discussion on ODR and Ethics, Trends In Conflict Throughout the United States, Technology and ADR, and A Practical Approach to Online Mediation. It seems international mediators are more interested in this form of mediation at this juncture. 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. According to one ODR vendor in the UK, the average duration is one hour in a case that would typically be found in a US county court. 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. Archived Cyberweek webinars remain available here-- http://www.adrhub.com/page/cyberweek-2014

Upchurch Speaks on Future of Mediation

Alternative Dispute Resolution pioneer John Upchurch of the firm Upchurch Watson White & Max shared his insights on the future of mediation at the Orange County Bar's ADR Committee Luncheon CLE today in Orlando. He was appointed by the Supreme Court of Florida as a charter member of the Supreme Court Committee on Mediation and Arbitration in 1989 and has been resolving disputes ever since. Upchurch opines that injecting creativity into the process could lead to future trends including non-traditional methods in Florida such as Early Neutral Evaluation or even so-called "Night" Baseball Arbitration. He also sees a potential for growth in E-Neutral services with the advent of E-Discovery rules and the need for stronger case management. As for the more typical types of cases, recent case law invalidating caps on medical malpractice damages and the start of new construction projects should lead to more opportunities to employ ADR services in the coming year. Upchurch also commented on the effects of lack of preparation for mediation and down-streaming of cases that need settling, including more follow-up and possibly reconvening parties and counsel. Finally, a discussion was had about the use of Special Magistrates in state court, much like Special Masters in federal court, to streamline discovery and enable quick decisions in a complex case to be made without judicial intervention beyond ratification or rejection of reports and recommendations.