What Do Consumers Think About Informal Dispute Resolution? For 20 years people have been saying that mediation and arbitration were ideas whose time had come. Then, during the past 10 years, legislatures nationwide passed mandatory mediation and arbitration requirements for many disputes, ranging from child custody to professional licensure disciplinary action. Today you can find programs to train mediators across the country. Mediation and arbitration dot-com companies now handle both e-commerce and general disputes. But what do consumers think about informal dispute resolution? What types of product and service complaints seem like a reasonable fit for these programs? We are looking for answers to these questions. DeMars & Associates decided to contract with St. Norbert's College to ask these questions and to analyze the answers. Graduate students conduct the research as part of their practicum, and satisfactory completion of a credible research report is required for graduation. Our project will be conducted over the course of the spring semester, 2001. Click the link on the right to request a copy of the findings. U.S. State Sponsored Warranty Arbitration Programs Aside from manufactured sponsored programs for warranty arbitration, several states also offer their own programs administered by the individual state government. There are currently ten states that offer arbitration in lemon law disputes. Although the arbitration decision making can be similar the eligibility and process components can be very different depending on where you live. Click the link on the right to learn the requirements for individual states that offer programs.