NCJ Number
119458
Journal
Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Dated: (1989) Pages: 129-155
Date Published
1989
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This article details a mediation between a landlord and tenant over repair and deduct non-payment of rent and discusses the views of two legal scholars, Owen Fiss and Lon Fuller, on the appropriateness of mediation in the landlord-tenant dispute.
Abstract
Fiss would probably argue that the case should not be mediated, for it meets two of his four proposed grounds for preferring adjudication to mediation: significant distributional inequalities existed between the parties and the case, if litigated, might have called forth an authoritative interpretation of the law. Fuller, on the other hand, would consider the case appropriate for mediation if the participants intended to create relevant norms to define their relationship and had a strong interest in continuing the relationship and the mediation. The author concludes that the participants, by choosing mediation over litigation, did not choose the more conservative process. They exposed themselves to one another's angers and irrationalities and became aware that cooperation was not possible. 82 footnotes.