Legislation that would eliminate required arbitration for employee, consumer and civil rights disputes was proposed last month. It should be passed. Congress must act to restore fairness.
Big business and corporate money, along with a corporate friendly Supreme Court, have been enough in the past to defeat efforts to bring fairness back to the arena of routine consumer and employee rights. Unfortunately, the same thing is likely to happen again, and the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2013 that has been introduced in the House (and a similar bill in the Senate) will likely fail.

After an all-day conference in Cairo with the political committee of the Arab League, Count Folke Bernadotte, U.N. mediator for Palestine, informed the Secretariat here that the work of mediation and negotiation between Arabs and Jews will begin next week on the Greek island of Rhodes.

On the face of it, the drought and late freeze in Kansas have been plenty hard enough, but the difficulties don't end with smaller yields and lack of forage. They sometimes mean struggles when the bills come due. To help farmers and ranchers, as well as lenders, work through legal and financial issues, the Kansas Agricultural Mediation Services offers free or low-cost services to farmers, ranchers and others.

Metrics that evaluate Nevada effort being made public - slowly.  Eight months after a Reno Gazette-Journal article raised transparency concerns about the state’s foreclosure mediation system, administrators for the program have started to release more data to the public.

Supporters Direct Scotland has offered to mediate between Kilmarnock fans and club chairman Michael Johnston over the future direction of the club.

A New Zealander is one of two sailing experts on the mediation panel which will try to get the warring America's Cup teams in San Francisco to agree on how and when the regatta will proceed - but the whole process could take at least another week.

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission has launched a mediation program to resolve employment discrimination complaints within a short timeframe. Trained, neutral mediators will guide the process, which aims to produce settlements agreeable to both parties.

"With mediation, everyone gets relief faster," Commission Chairman Gerry Robinson said. "People who believe they have been wronged, as well as employers facing complaints will get conflicts resolved faster, avoiding lengthy investigations, costly hearings and potential court filings."

There is no cost to those who choose mediation as a way of resolving their disputes, and they do not need to hire an attorney. The process is confidential.

The Sudanese government said it has no objections to meeting with African Union leaders to find a solution to outstanding issues with South Sudan.

State Senator Jake Corman (R-Centre) and State Treasurer Rob McCord have asked Commonwealth Court to place their lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) into mediation, in the hope of deciding the use of Penn State University sanction funds as soon as possible. Their request, filed with the court yesterday afternoon, came after they received an exchange of correspondence from legal counsels for Penn State and the NCAA.

Brooklyn Supreme Court ushered in a new project Thursday requiring all civil cases to pass through a mediation process before proceeding to trial. The first of its kind, the mandatory mediation project hopes to alleviate some the costs and other strains that civil litigation places on Brooklyn’s court system.

“Brooklyn has over 54,000 cases pending which is more than any other county in New York” Hon. Lawrence Knipel, Brooklyn Supreme Court administrative judge for civil matters, told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. “Mandatory mediation will hopefully reduce to time and financial costs of a trial not only for the county but for the attorneys and parties involved.”

A man mistakenly shot at by police during the manhunt for ex-police officer Christopher Dorner entered into mediation talks with attorneys for the city of Torrance Thursday. David Perdue, 38, was mistakenly shot at by Torrance police on Feb. 7 when officers rammed his pickup truck and then opened fire, according to his attorney.