What are our legal rights at work in West Virginia? When we work for someone else, a person, a company, or the government, for wages we have certain rights. Generally, they fall into categories of payment of wages, benefits, a safe work environment, a right to organize, and the obligation of the employer to refrain from discriminatory actions.

Covid-19 vaccinations may be required by businesses and employers. Schools are suggesting that they may require students to have a vaccination. In this article, we address-can they do that?

Arbitration requires that the parties allow a neutral third party to make a decision, without due process protections, and usually is ‘binding” to require that the parties give up their right to go to court and agree to accept an opinion by a third party, who could be described as a “private judge.” Since some businesses, employers and consumer contracts require arbitration, I am including it in the series.

I have been on the road a lot this month! I really enjoyed a workshop with the Virginia Mediation Network in late September on The Alternatives in Alternative Dispute Resolution. In early October I had the pleasure of participating in a symposium on Restorative Justice at the University of Richmond. But today, I’m returning to my series on the options in Alternative Dispute Resolution. Today, I am going to address a few options, in more general terms. Some are early in development, and I have not fully described them. Others involve processes that many practitioners do not include under the ADR Umbrella.