Arbitration-Mediation
Arbitration-mediation (hereafter arb-med) consists of three phases In phase one, the third party holds an arbitration hearing. At the end of this phase, the third party makes a decision, which is placed in a sealed envelope and is not revealed to the parties. The second phase consists of mediation. The sealed envelope containing the third party's decision is displayed promi-nently during the mediation phase. Only if mediation fails to produce a voluntary agreement by a specified deadline do the parties enter the third phase, called the ruling phase. Here, the third party removes the ruling from the envelope and reveals the binding ruling to the disputants To ensure that the envelope contains the original ruling and not a later decision (e.g., a ruling created after the mediation phase), the third party can ask a disputant from each side to sign the envelope across the seal at the beginning of mediation. The greatest benefit of arb-med is that it 18 encourages disputants to settle their differences themselves