17 e-Mediation - Mediate.com

Noam Ebner
This flurry of commissions and papers have been augmented by service providers who
have drafted their own set of guidelines, whether presenting them as codes of practice or
just as part of their “about us” section.
Much of the discussion of ethics pertains to the wider field of ODR, so I will not expand
on it here. However, I will make a few comments regarding mediation-specific issues.
Most standards of practice for online mediation have been modeled on traditional
mediation practice standards. The one area receiving attention outside of this model is
that of technical standards. Service providers often included the quality of their platform
and its robustness, as well as the technological proficiency of their mediators, as part of
their standards of practice. 99 However, face-to-face standards need to be tweaked to
accommodate the online environment and online practice methods. For example, the
service provider model described in this chapter necessitates two layers of impartiality:
The service provider must be impartial, not only the mediator. As an example of dealing
with this issue, I will note that the now-defunct WebMediate clearly stated that not only
was it an independent service, but that as a business it did not accept investments from
insurance companies or other businesses using the company to resolve disputes. 100 Other
service providers took this issue to heart, as well. 101
While there is not, as of yet, any agreed-upon or institutionalized standards to speak
of, recent thinking might be reflected in NCTDR’s code of practice. 102 One important
section of that code pertains to e-mediation as it voices preference to consensual processes:
Online Dispute Resolution schemes should encourage parties, whenever
appropriate, to resolve their disputes using consensual processes, particularly
when the restoration of the social links amongst disputants is of paramount
importance, such as in family disputes. Consensual processes however should
not be imposed against the will of the parties.
A recent paper by Jo DeMars, Susan Naus Exxon, Kimberly Kovach and Colin Rule 103
reflects some of the areas requiring discussion regarding ODR ethics. One important issue
relating to mediation in particular reflects a trend noticeable in the debate on ADR ethics
in general: abandoning the primacy given to neutrality and impartiality as guiding professional
and ethical beacons, and instead striving to maintain balance between parties.
99 Ponte & Cavenagh (2005). See, for example, SquareTrade’s standards of practice cited on p. 64.
100 Id.
101 Beal (1999).
102 NCTDR, Online Dispute Resolution Standards of Practice, 2009. Available at
,
last accessed 28 April 2011.
103 J. DeMars et al., “Virtual Virtues: Ethical Considerations for an Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Practice”,
Dispute Resolution Magazine, Fall 2010.
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