Lawsuits are about to get more expensive in Madison County, Illinois.

Civil lawsuits filed in the Illinois county after December 31, 2006, will be assessed an additional $8 The collected proceeds will help fund the 3rd Judicial Circuit’s new mandatory arbitration program, scheduled to begin operation on July 1. At that time, all suits seeking between $10K-$50K in damages will first be sent through arbitration, writes Brian Brueggemann in the Belleville News-Democrat article, “New small damage suit rule: arbitration first, then court.”

Based on similar pilot programs, the 3rd Judicial Circuit’s arbitration program will not only accelerate the dispute resolution process for all parties, but also reduce the number of jury trials and subsequently the number of citizens needed for jury duty, notes Madison County Circuit Judge Dan Stack. Chief Judge Ann Callis said, “All of the circuit and associate judges who were involved are very excited about starting alternative dispute resolution in Madison County.”

Elder mediation is a growing specialty within the mediation field. Trained mediation professionals are helping families find solutions to one of life’s most difficult challenges: caring for elderly loved ones when they are no longer able to care for themselves.

Maggie Johnson, in her 12/3/06 Boston Globe piece, “Mediators ease decisions on elders,” characterizes elder mediation as “an important tool for dealing with a new challenge: long- distance caregiving in a long-life-but-bureaucratic age.” She shares the successes of families who have chosen mediation to facilitate dialog and resolution. For example, Alessandra Nichols participated in a family mediation to determine how to best care for their recently windowed, 87 year-old mother. “People got to say what they wanted to say, people got to be heard,” said Nichols. “We were face to face saying these things together...”

The New York Yankees, one of the world's most recognized and followed professional sports teams, submitted their complaint electronically on September 14, 2006. The National Arbitration Forum found that the domain name, nyyankees.com was being used by Covanta Corporation to display links of third-party commercial websites that sell tickets to baseball games as well as merchandise bearing the New York Yankees mark without authorization.

The arbitrator found that the domain name was confusingly similar to the New York Yankees' trademark and that the Respondent of nyyankees.com had no legitimate interest in the domain name. Furthermore, the domain name was being used to attract Internet users for commercial gain by creating a likelihood of confusion between the disputed domain name and Complainant's mark. Therefore, the domain name was registered and being used in bad faith. The National Arbitration Forum ordered NYYankees.com to be transferred to the New York Yankees on November 14, 2006.