Introduction On 1 July 2015 the revised National Mediator Accreditation System (NMAS) came into effect. The revised NMAS replaced the Practice Standards and the Approval Standards previously in effect, and referred to collectively as the Australian National Mediator Standards (ANMS). One difference between the ANMS and the revised MNAS was the ongoing education and […]
Did you know that Australian courts can order that a child be vaccinated or given other medical treatments, overruling the consent of one or both parents, and even overruling the child’s own refusal? Last week ABC’s Law Report host Damian Carrick and his guest, Professor Cameron Stewart of University of Sydney Law School looked at […]
Earlier this month officers of the Houston Astros baseball team, Houston Rockets basketball team, and cable TV network Comcast SportsNet (CSN) gathered for their third mediation session within several weeks. The mediator, US District Court Judge Lynn Hughes, is working with the parties to untangle financial and media rights disputes which were brought to a […]
Last week I was struck by a headline stating a mediator had “sided with” a party in a dispute. Of course, it turned out that the mediator in question was actually acting as a Special Magistrate; however, the idea of a partial mediator was unsettling. The National Mediation Accreditation Standards require a mediator to “conduct […]
“Mediator appears to side with teachers union in contract impasse” This recent headline from a Florida newspaper caught my eye and got me thinking – “Why is the mediator taking sides? S/he should withdraw from the process and have a neutral mediator appointed immediately!” The “mediator” is Scott Milinski, a member of the US […]
The International Chamber of Commerce has released new rules for mediation and other Amicable Dispute Resolution processes administered by its International Centre for ADR (ICADR). The Mediation Rules, which came in to effect on 1 January 2014, “reflect modern practice and set clear parameters for the conduct of proceedings, while recognizing and maintaining the need for […]
Last week I had the pleasure of meeting and hearing from Monash University’s ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition team. With the support of the ACJI, the team of Tessa Sullivan, Jemima Roe, Joanna Paul and Julia Larner, and their coaches Naomi Burstyner (ACJI, Monash University) and Wendy Gaddie (ACJI, Monash University), travelled to Paris last […]
Rising VFL star Kane Lambert found himself at the centre of an inter-club quarrel during the 2013/14 transfer window.The 22-year-old Northern Blues midfielder was not named in the AFL National and Rookie draft lists for the 2014 season, despite being named in the VFL Team of the Year, winning the Fothergill-Round Medal for the best […]
Australian Mediation Perspectives 