Mediation Arbitration Specialist

Med/Arb Advanced Training

On January 23rd, 2014 Professional Resolution Experts of Michigan ( PREMi) will be presenting an eight hour advanced adr training program focusing on Med/Arb as well as new developments in ADR. The program will feature several outstanding ADR providers and some advocates have been recent users of Med/Arb. The program will be held at Cooley Law School, the Auburn Hills, Michigan campus. You can register for the program by going on the PREMI web site.. www.premi.us  .  I will be acting as the lead trainer and moderator and the luncheon speaker will be Doug Van Epps from the Michigan Supreme Court Adminstrative Office. 8 hr CLE credit will be given to all those who attend. I hope that you might consider attending.

 

The RUAA AAA Seminar

Today we had a very successful seminar sponsored by the American Arbitration Association on the RUAA and what it means to arbitrators and advocates in Michigan .  Because of the success of this program, we will be offering a retrospective of this sometime after the first of the year and will cover the  provisions of the RUAA and any recent cases or developments . As I indicated during the program, the Michgan Court Rules need to be amended in order to be consistent with the changes mandated by the RUAA. I am attaching a link to the currently pending rule for your review. Download Proposed Amendment of Rule 3.602 (Arbitration) of the MI Court Rules .                                                                                                                                                   

RUAA Training

As many of you know, I have been very involved in working for the passage of the Revised Uniform Arbitration Act here in Michigan. That legislation was passed and will be in effect commencing on the 1st of July. To help ADR providers as well as users of ADR be prepared with knowledge of the features of the new act, the American Arbitration Association is sponsoring a half day seminar on May 16th at the offices of the Oakland County Bar Association in Bloomfield Township,Michigan. Mary Bedikian, who also worked with me on the project, and I will be the presenters. This will be a very worthwhile event. Additionally, Mary and I will also present a short segment on the RUAA on Saturday, September 28th as part of the program during the ADR Section of State Bar of Michigan's Annual Meeting at the Radisson Kingsley Hotel, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This program will review the first 3 months of the use of the RUAA in Michigan. I urge those of you who are arbitrators here in Michigan or those who use Arbitraiton to attend these sessions. To register for the May 16th program contact Jan Holdinski at [email protected]  . I will give you the information on the September session as soon as it is available.

It has been a while since I posted anything. I have been busy providing several arbitrator/mediator training programs for PREMi as well as the American Arbitration Association. On March 21st, I will be presenting a program along with Brian Pappas on the pros and cons of Med-Arb or the various forms of hybrid ADR processes as part of ICLE's Advance Dispute Resolution Institute at the St. John Conference Center. It should be a very interesting debate. Also in May, Mary Bedekian and I will be presenting a 4 hour presentation sponsored by the American Arbitration Association on the newly adopted Revised Uniform Arbitration Act which will become effective on July 1st. Finally, I have been given the task by the ADR Section Council to head a task force group to develop a training program and certification standards for arbitrators in this state, as well as a training program and standards for ADR trainers. I invite anyone who would like to work with me on this to let me know and if you have any thoughts or ideas, to send them along as well.

It is now a new year, with the RUAA now ready to be implemented. Note that it will be effective starting on July 1, 2012. There will be several seminars offered to learn the new features of arbitration in this state. The PREMI seminar which is set for January 24th will touch upon some of the new features and the effect it has on the Med/Arb process. It will also be features in the March 2013 ICLE Advanced Dispute Resolution Institute and in a May American Arbitration Association sponsored training session. I will be part of the faculty in each of these. I look forward to seeing some of you there.

I have recently obatined and read a new mediation publication by the Practicing Law Institute. It is different and worth a read, especially if you do a lot of commercial mediations. It is titled “Anatomy of a Mediation: A Deal-Maker’s Distinctive Approach to Resolving Dollar Disputes and Other Commercial Conflicts” by Jim C. Freund formerly of Skadden LLP. If you mention that you saw this on this blog, I am told you will get a 15% discount. Check with Patrick Bier , Practising Law Institute,810 7th Ave,New York, NY 10019. The author uses more evaluative techniques in his approach, and demonstrates a real "how to" approach.

Public Acts 369, 370 and 371. It is now official!.. The Revised Uniform Arbitraiton Act has been signed by t he Governor and will be effective as of July 1, 2013. We have now moved into the 21st Century with a new arbitration law.

In the continuing saga of the RUAA, I am pleased to announce that a few moments ago the Michigan State Senate approved the amended version of the RUAA passed by the House last week. The bill is now going up to the governor for signature. The effective date of the bill is July 1, 2013 so we will all have some time to get up to speed and see how it will affect each of us.

On January 24th, Professional Resolution Experts of Michigan ( PREMi), will be presenting an 8 hour seminar on Current Trends and New Developments in Med/Arb at Cooley Law School. This will include recent developments in the law and its impact on the med/arb process, exploring ethical issues that arise, and training in establishing a med/arb process. We will be using role play, lecture, and interactive panel discussion techniques to present the information. I urge you to join us and learn. To register, visit PREMi's event page at http://medarb2013.eventbrite.com or contact Bill Weber, PREMi's Executive Director, by phone at 248-644-0077.

Hot off the press... the Uniform Arbitration Act, Senate Bills 901, 902, and 903 as amended by House Bill No. 1 was passed today 108-0. The Bills will now go back to the Senate for routine passage of the House version which, for all practical purposes, only dealt with the effective dates of the legislation because of the delay between the time that Bills were passed by the Senate and now. We look forward to the statutes being signed by the Governor in the next couple of weeks and it will be effective as of July 1, 2013.