When parties find themselves involved in a serious conflict, they often try to avoid the expense and hassle of litigation by turning to one of the two most common alternative dispute resolution processes: mediation or arbitration. Disputants who are concerned about these drawbacks might want to consider a hybrid mediation-arbitration approach called med-arb.
… Read What is Med-Arb? 
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mediation and arbitration
What is Mediation and Arbitration?
Mediation and arbitration can help parties solve serious conflicts without the expense and hassle of litigation.
What’s the difference between mediation and arbitration? In a mediation process, a neutral, trained mediator works to help disputants come to a consensus on their own. In arbitration, a neutral, trained arbitrator serves as a judge who is responsible for resolving the dispute.
Mediation is appealing because it allows parties to reach a collaborative settlement, but it could end in impasse. Arbitration, on the other hand, can wrap up a dispute conclusively, but it doesn’t give disputants much say in the outcome.
A hybrid approach called med-arb combines the benefits of both mediation and arbitration techniques.
In this mediation and arbitration hybrid, parties first attempt to collaborate on an agreement with the help of a mediator. If the mediation ends in impasse, or if issues remain unresolved, the parties can then move on to arbitration.
The mediator can assume the role of arbitrator (if qualified) and render a binding decision quickly, or an arbitrator can take over the case after consulting with the mediator.
If you are considering med-arb (or arb-med), or if another party has recommended it to you, weigh the potential benefits and concerns carefully. Med-arb has a proven ability to get disputes resolved relatively quickly and amicably, but making a single choice between mediation and arbitration is often be sufficient to meet your needs.
To learn more about mediation, claim your FREE copy of Mediation Secrets for Better Business Negotiations: Top Techniques from Mediation Training Experts. In this free special report, the editors of Negotiation provide you with insights into why mediation is the preferred method of dispute resolution for most managers. Throughout the report, you will discover how to select the right mediator, come to understand the mediation process, and learn how to engage the mediator to ensure a good outcome.
The following items are tagged mediation and arbitration:
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Training: Mediation Curriculum
In 2009, we collected many types of curriculum materials from teachers and trainers who attended the Mediation Pedagogy Conference. We received general materials about classes on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as well as highly specific and idiosyncratic units like Conflict Resolution through Literature: Romeo and Juliet and a negotiating training package for female managers … Read More
What are the Three Basic Types of Dispute Resolution? What to Know About Mediation, Arbitration, and Litigation
When it comes to dispute resolution, there are so many choices available to us. Understandably, disputants are often confused about which process to apply to their situation. This article offers some guidance.
… Read More
How to Manage Conflict at Work
Sooner or later, almost all of us will find ourselves trying to cope with how to manage conflict at work. At the office, we may struggle to work through high-pressure situations with people with whom we have little in common. We need a special set of strategies to calm tempers, restore order, and meet each … Read How to Manage Conflict at Work
Why is Negotiation Important: Mediation in Transactional Negotiations
We generally think of mediation as a dispute-resolution device. Federal mediators intervene when collective bargaining breaks down. Diplomats are sometimes called in to mediate conflicts between nations. So-called multi-door courthouses encourage litigants to mediate before incurring the costs – and risks – of going to trial.
… Read More
What is Alternative Dispute Resolution?
So, you’re stuck in a serious dispute, but you’re desperate to avoid the hassle and expense of a court case. You’ve heard about alternative dispute resolution but are not sure what it entails.
… Read What is Alternative Dispute Resolution?
What Is an Umbrella Agreement?
Business negotiators tend to want the best of both worlds. When reaching an agreement, they want to pin down parties’ respective rights and responsibilities, but they also want to retain the flexibility they need to deal with ever-changing business conditions. One solution to this apparent dilemma is to craft an umbrella agreement.
… Read What Is an Umbrella Agreement?
What is an Arbitration Agreement?
If you have ever owned a cell phone or been issued a credit card, odds are you’ve signed an arbitration agreement. You also may have signed an arbitration agreement when you started your current job or a past one, whether you remember doing so or not.
… Read What is an Arbitration Agreement?
Choose the Right Dispute Resolution Process
What is dispute resolution? There are three basic types of dispute resolution, each with its pros and cons. The first two, mediation and arbitration, are considered types of alternative dispute resolution because they are an alternative to litigation.
… Read Choose the Right Dispute Resolution Process
Undecided on Your Dispute Resolution Process? Combine Mediation and Arbitration, Known as Med-Arb
The choice: arbitration vs. mediation. You’re not sure which of two common dispute resolution processes, mediation or arbitration, to use to resolve your conflict. Mediation is appealing because it would allow you to reach a collaborative settlement, but you’re worried it could end in impasse. You know that arbitration would wrap up your dispute resolution … Read More
Arbitration vs Mediation: The Definition of Mediation as a Problem Solving Process
Mediation is often thought of as a last step to adjudicate disputes. In this article, professor Lawrence Susskind spells out the hidden advantages of using mediation early in the process to solve problems and reach voluntary compliance agreements.
… Read More
A Negotiation Impasse Between England and France Leads to Skirmish Over Scallops
When parties are fighting for scarce resources, disputes can become intense. Negotiation is often the answer, but agreements may need to be continually revisited to keep the peace, and a negotiation impasse can result in renewed conflict. That’s the main takeaway from the dispute that erupted in the English Channel between French and British fishermen … Read More
How Fast-Food Workers Used Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to Demand Higher Wages
Labor unions are the most obvious example of negotiating coalitions. If an individual employee made demands of its employer, the company could threaten to hire someone else.
… Read More
Capture the Best of Mediation and Arbitration
The problem: You’re not sure which of the two most common dispute-resolution processes, mediation or arbitration, to use to resolve your conflict. Mediation is appealing because it would allow you to reach a collaborative settlement, but you’re worried it could end in impasse. You know that arbitration would wrap up your dispute conclusively, but it … Read Capture the Best of Mediation and Arbitration
How to Deal with a Difficult Mediator
Francesca Gino, Program on Negotiation faculty member and author of the bestselling book, Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed and How We Can Stick to the Plan, tackles this question from a Negotiation Briefings reader concerning how to deal with a mediator that is abrasive, dismissive, or even rude.
… Read How to Deal with a Difficult Mediator
Using Mediators to Resolve Disputes
You’ve seen how mediators can help one organizational team prepare for a complex negotiation. But what about when litigation looms?
… Read Using Mediators to Resolve Disputes
How to Conduct a Mediation During Crisis Negotiations
The most difficult peace negotiations in recent decades—in Ireland, the Middle East, the former Yugoslavia, and Sri Lanka—were plagued by a common enemy: violent disruptions by spoilers opposed to the peace process. In each of these cases, extremists stalled negotiations by creating security crises that divided public opinion and drove negotiators apart.
… Read More
How Your Organization Can Benefit from Mediation Techniques
If you manage people, disputes will show up at your door. The marketing VP protests that the budget cap you and your new finance VP proposed is hindering a research initiative you supported. Two young sales representatives are embroiled in a turf war. Your administrative assistant is upset because the HR director won’t approve the … Read More
Make the Most of Mediation in Negotiations and Dispute Resolution
What at first seemed like a minor misunderstanding has spiraled out of control. A Chicago-based printing company hired your Chicago-based IT consulting firm to train its staff to use its new computer system.
… Read More
Announcing the 2015 PON Summer Fellows
About the PON Summer Fellowship Program:
PON offers fellowship grants to students at Harvard University, MIT, Tufts University and other Boston-area schools who are doing internships or undertaking summer research projects in negotiation and dispute resolution in partnership with public, non-profit or academic organizations. The Summer Fellowship Program’s emphasis is on advancing the links between scholarship … Read Announcing the 2015 PON Summer Fellows
Interdisciplinary and International Perspectives on ADR: Past, Present, and Future
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is pleased to present: Interdisciplinary and International Perspectives on ADR: Past, Present, and Future with
Dr. Paola Cecchi-Dimeglio Editor, Interdisciplinary Handbook of Dispute Resolution
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
12:00 – 1:30PM
Pound Hall 102
Harvard Law School campus
Free and open to the public. A non-pizza lunch will be provided.
About the Book:
Over the last three decades, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) … Read More
Bet you didn’t know…Negotiation research you can use
As state and local governments in the United States have been stretched to the breaking point, conflicts between public-sector employers and employees have become increasingly acrimonious, often resulting in stalemates.
When governments and employee unions reach impasse, they often turn to alternative dispute-resolution practices such as mediation and arbitration. Though these practices can be successful, the … Read More
Taking Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Too Far
More and more companies are inserting alternative dispute resolution (ADR) clauses in their contracts with customers and vendors, and even in agreements with their own employees. ADR processes such as mediation and arbitration can be beneficial for all concerned if they help avoid the cost, delay, and uncertainty of going to court. Mediation, in particular, … Read More
Mediation, Arbitration, and the Promise of Privacy
Negotiators often choose to resolve their conflicts through mediation, arbitration, and other alternative dispute resolution methods because of the privacy these methods promise. Unlike the public nature of litigation, mediation and arbitration typically give parties the freedom to hash out sensitive issues without the fear that their discussions and agreement will become public knowledge. Two … Read More
Taking ADR Too Far
More and more companies are inserting alternative dispute resolution (ADR) clauses in their contracts with customers and vendors, and even in agreements with their own employees. ADR processes such as mediation and arbitration can be beneficial for all concerned if they help avoid the cost, delay, and uncertainty of going to court. Mediation, in particular, … Read Taking ADR Too Far
Are You Overlooking Mediation?
Adapted from “Why Aren’t Mediation and Arbitration More Popular?” First published in the Negotiation newsletter.
Many scholars have noted that the business community would greatly benefit from third-party dispute resolution services. The problem is, there isn’t much demand for mediation or arbitration. If the alternative dispute resolution field has in fact built a better mousetrap, why … Read Are You Overlooking Mediation?
Conflict within Companies
Conflict within companies can be very costly, both in time and resources. Alternative Dispute Resolution, or ADR, may be helpful as you consider ways in which you can transition from conflict to productivity within your own organization.
The three most common ADR techniques are: mediation, arbitration, and med-arb. During mediation a neutral third party facilitates a … Read Conflict within Companies