Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming part of everyday professional practice in dispute resolution. As its use expands across the legal profession, questions are beginning to arise about how these tools should be used by mediators and arbitrators.

Until recently, the issue has received little attention within the ADR community itself.

At present, most mediation and arbitration codes of conduct say little or nothing about artificial intelligence.

While much of the discussion about AI in law focuses on lawyers using these tools, far less attention has been paid to their use by mediators and arbitrators. Yet as AI becomes more common . . . [more]

Almost ten years ago the BC Family Unbundled Legal Services Roster (the “Roster”) and Unbundling Toolkit were launched [Note 1]. We are delighted to announce that, in partnership with Access Pro Bono BC, the Roster is now being administered by the new Legal Referral Service (“LRS”).

This transition marks an important milestone in the continued growth and sustainability of unbundled legal services in British Columbia.

Unbundled legal services (often called limited scope services) help to improve access to legal advice, coaching and representation for the public. [Note 2] This approach also offers many important benefits for legal professionals, the . . . [more]

Sticks and Stones

As a society, we tend to categorize folks. Introverts or extroverts. Calm or anxious. Easy to get along with or difficult. I struggle with these categorizations because I feel that they oversimplify matters. It has been my experience that most people shift how they behave based on who they are with, the environment they are in and the situation. As a result, I often question the benefit of these labels.

My greatest concern in this respect surrounds the impact of negative labels, in terms of what they project and the assumptions that are made around them. Groundbreaking . . . [more]

In a seminal article from 1994, Fitting the Forum to the Fuss: A user-Friendly Guide to Selecting an ADR Procedure, the authors, Frank Sandler and Stephen Goldberg, both leaders in the ADR movement in the U.S. used ‘Fit the Forum to the fuss” as a principle in dispute resolution design meaning you should choose the right process (the “forum”) for the specific conflict (the “fuss”), tailoring it to the parties (people), the problem’s nature, and the process goals.

For more than four years, lawyers and mediators have lived with a quiet but persistent question, or minor irritant left by . . . [more]

There is no “one” solution to the delays in administrative justice in Canada. When a problem is caused by multiple reasons, it often takes multiple approaches to resolving it. The volume of disputes has grown over the last decade and the reasons for this are complex. Society is becoming more litigious, which could be due to an increased awareness of legal rights and also a reduced willingness to compromise. The volume of complaints or applications to tribunals is also partly due to the rise of self-represented parties, who may not have a full understanding of the law. One of the . . . [more]

I am writing this on December 15^th. You may not read this until after Christmas but I hope it will still be timely!

If you have had enough Hallmark movies, or podcasts highlighting the latest twists in US politics, I have a suggestion for you. Tune in to the CBC’s See you in Court podcast. It tells the stories behind legal cases that changed Canada. Host Falen Johnson teams up with a journalist to dig into a case that challenged the status quo and reshaped the law.

The series begins with the story of Henry Morgantaler, and continues . . . [more]

As artificial intelligence becomes embedded in commercial, administrative, and professional decision-making, disputes involving opaque or unpredictable system behaviour are becoming increasingly common. Traditional litigation struggles to address these conflicts, which blend technical uncertainty with evolving legal and regulatory principles. Mediation offers a proportional, flexible, and forward-looking process capable of bringing clarity to the “unexplainable” and helping parties navigate accountability in an AI-driven environment.

Although the term AI was originally used in 1955, our awareness and use of it have rapidly accelerated through the launch of OpenAI’s GPT series. OpenAI released the GPT-3.5 model in November 2022, and its latest . . . [more]

The Condominium Authority Tribunal is experiencing a trend. There has been an increase in the number of applications filed that do not fit within its jurisdiction. The parties in these cases are often neighbours who live in a community while they continue looking for ways to resolve their dispute.

In such situations, people can often find guidance on how to escalate matters, but what happens when a situation does not warrant that time and cost?

Let’s look at a couple of examples and explore ways the parties can address their issue without resorting to escalation…

Ramadhin v. Niagara South Standard . . . [more]

It was very encouraging to hear about the new Early Intervention Program launched by the Society for Children & Youth of BC (SCYBC). This is great news of support for the growing movement to ensure that children and youth are able to meaningfully participate in the BC family justice system. We need your help to get the word out to the legal profession, youth serving agencies, the judiciary and your personal networks.

For too long, many kids whose parents are separating have not been offered the opportunity to express their views on issues that significantly impact their lives – such . . . [more]

“Expedition, economy and concision are sound practices in administrative adjudication.”

Justice David Stratas, Canadian National Railway Company v. Canada (Transportation Agency), 2025 FCA 184, para. 47

In this recent decision of the Federal Court of Appeal about railway interswitching rates, the court observed that the Canadian Transportation Agency had never “conducted a full and rigorous statutory interpretation analysis, i.e., explicitly examining the elements of text, context and purpose” of those rates. Justice Stratas stated that “[c]utting corners and conclusory statements, without more, are not how the Agency should roll … only explicit and rigorous analysis will do…”

He . . . [more]

Described as everything from an ecosystem to a fourth level of government, a condo community can be representative of society on a much larger scale. This is a brief examination of what happens when an individual facing an issue takes matters into their own hands…

There is this memorable story from the early 2000s about a condo President, so eager to ensure that enjoyment of the community’s playground was limited to only the building’s residents that he took it upon himself to approach children playing on the equipment to ask them where they lived… until the police showed up!

Hero

If mediation is meant to provide a genuine opportunity to resolve disputes, why do so many mediation briefs read like pleadings and offer little value to the process? This article examines the pitfalls of current practice and offers practical guidance on how to make briefs work as genuine tools of persuasion for counsel.

Mediation briefs are meant to advance settlement. Yet too often, they do the opposite. Instead of opening space for dialogue, they entrench positions. Instead of persuading the other party, they restate pleadings which can inflame an already tense situation.

Why do so many briefs fall short? In . . . [more]