The dataset is organized as a searchable Excel file, and you can easily compile lists of cases by mediation issue, jurisdiction, level of court, or a wide number of other variables. Cross-tab functions within the Excel program (available as "Filter" options in the Excel "Data" toolbar) allow you to quickly tailor searches and combine variables (e.g., generate a list of state supreme court decisions where mediators testified and a mediated settlement was enforced; or a list of federal circuit court decisions in a specific year which address mediation ethics). We encourage researchers to use the dataset and ask only in return that you attribute it (James R. Coben & Peter N. Thompson, Hamline University School of Law Mediation Case Law Dataset) in any published work. This version includes all cases from 1999-2003. The file will be updated in late summer 2006 to include 2004 and 2005 cases.
To download the dataset, 
A Note on Construction of the Database
We searched the Westlaw databases "allstates" and "allfeds" for the term "mediat!" for the years 1999 to 2003 and found a total of 8127 entries. After reviewing the Westlaw summary results list for each entry, we excluded opinions which merely referred to mediation or a mediator. We read each of the remaining cases, but discovered that many did not involve a significant mediation issue. Some of the opinions used the term mediation or mediator, but upon closer analysis were found to involve a neutral that acted as an arbitrator, or even as a judge. Such cases were not included in the database. We selected 1223 cases that implicated mediation issues and included them in the database. For each of these cases, the authors completed a questionnaire that reported information on a number of variables.
The 1223 cases were placed in one of nine subject matter categories:
- Personal Injury/Tort
- Contract/Commercial
- Family Law
- Employment (including harassment and discrimination claims)
- Estate
- Malpractice
- Tax/Bankruptcy
- IDEA Claims
- and Other
The specific issues addressed in each case were reported and separated into the following categories:
- enforcement of an alleged mediation agreement
- mediation sanctions
- duty to mediate
- mediation confidentiality
- mediation ethics or malpractice in the conduct of the mediation
- mediation/arbitration issues
- fees
- condition precedent
- or other
Many of the cases involved more than one issue. For example, numerous cases involved the issue of whether compliance with a statutory or contractual mediation clause was a condition precedent and created a duty to mediate before bringing suit. When the case involved an enforcement issue, a number of other issues relating to defenses raised were reported.
Most litigated issues about mediation are handled at the trial level, usually without any reported opinion. As would be expected, most of the opinions in our database came from appellate courts (874), although we did find 350 trial court opinions. Most of the trial court opinions (290) were from federal courts. Legal issues involving mediation are increasingly finding their way up the appellate chain to state supreme courts. State supreme courts addressed mediation issues in ninety-one opinions over the five-year period. In 1999, state supreme courts addressed mediation issues in eleven cases; in 2003, that figure grew to thirty.
