As a follow-up to last week’s post about interpreter services being required for all mediations, I’d like to pass along a fascinating article titled The Politics and Power of Plain Language by Jane M. Siegel, a professor at Thomas M. Cooley Law School (hat tip to Richard Zorza for highlighting this article in his recent post). Siegel references The Plain Writing Act of 2010, which requires federal agencies to write all new informational or filing documents, including (more…)
Archive for August, 2011
Speak Justly: Mediators and the Plain Language Movement
Heather Scheiwe Kulp, August 25th, 2011Requiring Court ADR Programs to Provide Interpreters: Increasing Access to Justice, and Costs
Jessica Glowinski, August 19th, 2011This month’s “Be Neutral” newsletter from the Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution highlighted the Georgia Supreme Court’s revised rule on providing interpreter services for people with limited English proficiency. The rule now requires the court to provide free access to interpreters for all court-managed functions, including court alternative dispute resolution programs. (more…)
New RSI Report on Foreclosure Mediations Conducted Per Month
Jessica Glowinski, August 18th, 2011Using Participant Surveys to Assess the Need for Program Change
Jennifer Shack, August 10th, 2011I just finished working with a restorative justice program in downstate Illinois to develop post-process evaluation forms. The program provides several services for juveniles who are primarily sent to them through police station adjustments. We worked together to develop forms for peer jury and victim-offender mediation.
What was exciting to me about our collaboration is that they were interested in gathering data for the express purpose of evaluating their own process of intake and orientation, as well as the juveniles’ reaction to the process. (more…)
Future Justice? Online Dispute Resolution and Access to Justice*
Heather Scheiwe Kulp, August 8th, 2011Recently, the Internet Bar Organization hosted a fascinating online discussion entitled The Future of Justice: How Technology is Shaping the Dispute Resolution EcoSystem. The four speakers—two from the U.S., one from India, and one from China—highlighted the promising characteristics of online dispute resolution systems that could lead to greater access to justice for millions of global consumers. They also addressed some, though not all, of the challenges online dispute resolution presents to the justice landscape.
First, they drew a helpful distinction between (more…)