Originially from World Arbitration and Mediation Review (WAMR)

The Practice of Mediation Online: Techniques to Use or Avoid When
Mediating in Cyberspace
By
Susan Summers Raines, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Conflict Management; Kennesaw State
University (GA)

[Based on a Keynote Speech delivered to the Third United Nations Forum
on Online Dispute Resolution, Melbourne, Australia, July 6, 2004.]
After mediating more than 7,000 disputes online for a company
called Squaretrade.com, and hundreds of civil and domestic cases offline,
I am inclined to believe that online mediation is more similar to traditional
face-to-face mediation than it is dissimilar. Sure, the use of technology
and the added difficulty of communicating without non-verbal cues can
pose significant hurdles in some instances or for some disputants. Yet, if
the goal is to “fit the forum to the fuss” (Sander and Goldberg, 1994),
there will always be a subset of cases for which online mediation is
appropriate. This article proposes to describe briefly those cases for which
online dispute resolution may be appropriate, and then discusses which
mediation and conflict management techniques seem to work either better
or worse in the online environment.
My initial reaction to the idea of online mediation was one of open
skepticism. I was a “true believer” in the healing powers of mediation. In
addition to settling disputes earlier, cheaper, and out of court, I saw
mediation as having the potential to preserve or enhance relationships,
build communication and conflict management skills among disputants,
empower parties to make their own decisions, allow people to tell their
stories and be heard, and generally to improve the way society resolves
disputes (see Bush and Folger, 1994). While these deeper benefits do not
occur in every mediation, the potential exists for them to occur and when
it happens, mediators realize they have one of the best jobs in the world.
While I was seriously skeptical about online mediation, I decided to try it
out for myself before reaching any final conclusions. To my utmost
surprise, the first few cases I mediated made it clear that most of the
benefits of mediation, even the deeper benefits, can surely occur online.