Course Description
PLA3240 is Alternative Dispute Resolution for paralegal students. The Statewide Course Numbering System describes it precisely, and ⚠ unusually, it names Florida explicitly: "This course will focus on alternative dispute resolution techniques as a way of resolving legal conflicts. Negotiation, arbitration and mediation will be studied with emphasis on mediation due to its extensive application in the U.S. and particularly Florida."
The statewide prerequisite is a real three-course gate: `PLA1003`, `PLA2273` and `BUL2130` — introduction to the paralegal profession, legal research or civil litigation, and business law.
✅ Three Florida public institutions carry it — St. Petersburg College, Florida Gulf Coast University and the University of West Florida — all at 3 credits and all under the identical statewide title. ⚠ Worth stating plainly because it is uncommon in this catalog: no title drift, no credit divergence, nothing to resolve. And it is an FCS-to-SUS pairing, which is the cleanest transfer case Florida's numbering system produces.
⚠⚠ Why the statewide description's mention of Florida is not a flourish. Florida is one of the most mediation-intensive legal systems in the United States. Florida courts routinely order mediation before a civil case is tried, and the Florida Supreme Court certifies mediators under its own rules in several categories — county, circuit civil, family, dependency and appellate. ⚠⚠ So for a Florida paralegal this is not an elective topic about a theoretical alternative; it describes what actually happens to most civil disputes in the state. A litigation paralegal in Florida will schedule, prepare for and attend mediations as ordinary work.
⚠ And there is a career point that makes this course unusual among paralegal offerings: mediator certification in Florida does not require a law degree. See *Special Information* — the requirements are specific, and this course is the natural first step toward them.
Learning Outcomes
Required Outcomes
- Distinguish the principal ADR processes — negotiation, mediation, arbitration, early neutral evaluation, mini-trial, summary jury trial — and explain how each differs in who decides.
- ⚠ Explain the difference between a facilitative and an adjudicative process, and why that distinction determines everything else about it.
- Compare ADR with litigation on cost, time, privacy, control, relationship preservation, and the enforceability of the outcome.
- Apply negotiation theory: positional versus interest-based bargaining, BATNA, reservation point, the zone of possible agreement, and distributive versus integrative approaches.
- Describe the stages of a mediation — convening, opening statements, information gathering, issue identification, option generation, caucus, negotiation, agreement and drafting.
- ⚠⚠ Explain the mediator's role and its limits: neutrality, impartiality, self-determination of the parties, and ⚠ why a mediator does not decide, advise or evaluate.
- Explain confidentiality in mediation, its statutory basis, and its exceptions.
- Describe arbitration: agreements to arbitrate, selection of arbitrators, the hearing, the award, and ⚠ the very limited grounds on which an award can be vacated.
- Analyse arbitration clauses, including mandatory pre-dispute clauses in consumer and employment contracts, and the policy arguments about them.
- ⚠ Apply the Florida framework: court-ordered mediation, the mediator certification categories, the Rules for Certified and Court-Appointed Mediators, and the statutory confidentiality provisions.
- Apply the Federal Arbitration Act and the Florida Arbitration Code in outline.
- ⚠⚠ Perform the paralegal's role in an ADR matter: case assessment, document and exhibit preparation, mediation summaries and position statements, scheduling and logistics, client preparation, and drafting the settlement agreement for attorney review.
- ⚠⚠⚠ Recognise the boundary of the unauthorised practice of law — what a paralegal may and may not do in an ADR setting.
- Apply ethical rules — confidentiality, conflicts of interest, candour, and the duty of supervision.
- Draft a settlement agreement that is clear, complete and enforceable.
- Participate in a simulated negotiation and mediation and reflect on performance.
Optional Outcomes
- Address family mediation specifically — parenting plans, equitable distribution, and ⚠ screening for domestic violence and power imbalance.
- Address employment and workplace ADR, and internal grievance systems.
- Address construction, insurance or healthcare dispute resolution.
- Address international and cross-border arbitration, and the New York Convention.
- Address online dispute resolution and remote mediation practice.
- Address restorative justice and community or victim-offender mediation.
- Address collaborative law, which Florida has adopted by statute.
- ⚠ Complete a Florida Supreme Court certified mediator training programme, or begin the requirements for one.
- Observe a real court-ordered mediation or arbitration.
Major Topics
Required Topics
- The ADR landscape — the processes, the spectrum from party-controlled to third-party-decided, and why ADR grew.
- Negotiation — theory, preparation, interests versus positions, BATNA, tactics, and ethical limits.
- ⚠ Mediation — the process stages, mediator styles (facilitative, evaluative, transformative), caucus, impasse-breaking, and drafting the agreement. The statewide description says the emphasis falls here.
- Arbitration — agreements, arbitrator selection, procedure, evidence, the award, confirmation and vacatur.
- Court-connected ADR in Florida — ⚠ court-ordered mediation, the certification categories, mediator qualifications, and the Rules for Certified and Court-Appointed Mediators.
- Confidentiality and privilege — the Florida Mediation Confidentiality and Privilege Act, exceptions, and what a paralegal must not disclose.
- Enforceability — settlement agreements as contracts, consent judgments, and enforcing an arbitral award.
- Statutory framework — the Federal Arbitration Act, the Florida Arbitration Code, and relevant Florida statutes and rules of civil procedure.
- ⚠⚠ The paralegal's role and its limits — preparation, documents, logistics, client support, drafting; and the unauthorised practice of law.
- Ethics — conflicts, confidentiality, candour, supervision, and the paralegal's duty when an ethical problem is spotted.
- Documents — mediation summaries, position statements, exhibit organisation, settlement agreements, releases.
- ⚠ Simulation — role-played negotiation and mediation, normally the central graded activity.
Optional Topics
- Family and dependency mediation; domestic-violence screening.
- Employment, construction, insurance and healthcare ADR.
- International commercial arbitration.
- Online and remote dispute resolution.
- Restorative and community justice.
- Collaborative law under Florida's statute.
- Mediator certification training.
- Cultural competence and language access in mediation.
Resources & Tools
- Alternative Dispute Resolution for Paralegals (Cooley) and ADR: Principles and Practice are the usual course texts; Mediation: Practice, Policy, and Ethics (Menkel-Meadow, Love and Schneider) is the fuller treatment where the course leans academic.
- ⚠⚠ Getting to Yes by Fisher, Ury and Patton — almost universally assigned, short, and the source of BATNA and interest-based bargaining. ⚠ It is also the one book from this course you will still be using in twenty years, in any profession. Difficult Conversations (Stone, Patton and Heen) is the natural companion.
- ⚠⚠ Free, authoritative and Florida-specific — this is the best resource list in the guide:
- The Florida Courts' Dispute Resolution Center (flcourts.gov) — ⚠ publishes the mediator certification requirements, the Rules for Certified and Court-Appointed Mediators, the mediator ethics advisory opinions, and the approved training-programme list. All free, and all authoritative.
- Chapter 44, Florida Statutes (mediation and arbitration) and the Florida Mediation Confidentiality and Privilege Act — ⚠ read the actual statute; it is short and it is what governs.
- The Florida Rules of Civil Procedure on court-ordered mediation, and Chapter 682 (the Florida Arbitration Code).
- The Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C.) — free on the Cornell LII site, which is also the best free legal-research resource generally.
- The American Arbitration Association and JAMS publish their rules and forms free — ⚠ reading a real set of arbitration rules is worth more than a chapter about them.
- ⚠ The Florida Bar — for the Florida Registered Paralegal requirements and the guidance on the unauthorised practice of law. ⚠⚠ Read the UPL material directly; it is the boundary your career depends on.
- Westlaw or LexisNexis if your programme provides access, and Fastcase or Casetext where it does not; ⚠ Google Scholar's case search and the Cornell LII are free and adequate for coursework.
- ⚠ Professional bodies worth joining as a student, cheaply: the Paralegal Association of Florida, NALA and NFPA, and the Florida Academy of Professional Mediators or the Florida Dispute Resolution Center's annual conference. ADR is a small professional community and it recruits by acquaintance.
Career Pathways
- Paralegal and Legal Assistant (SOC 23-2011) — the direct destination, and ⚠ litigation paralegals in Florida handle mediation logistics and documents as routine work, which makes this course immediately applicable rather than theoretical.
- ⚠⚠⚠ Arbitrator, Mediator and Conciliator (SOC 23-1022) — and here is the point that makes this course unusual: Florida Supreme Court mediator certification does NOT require a law degree. The county-court category in particular is reachable with a combination of education, approved training and mentorship. ⚠ Requirements are set by the Supreme Court and change, so verify them against the Dispute Resolution Center's current list — but a paralegal with this coursework is on a genuine and under-advertised path to a credential that many people assume requires a JD.
- Claims Adjuster, Examiner and Investigator (SOC 13-1031) — ⚠ negotiation is the job, and Florida's insurance market is enormous.
- Human Resources Specialist (SOC 13-1071) and Labor Relations Specialist (SOC 13-1075) — workplace dispute resolution and grievance handling.
- Compliance Officer (SOC 13-1041), contract administration, and Title IX or ombuds offices in universities and large employers.
- Court administration — ⚠ Florida's judicial circuits employ ADR programme staff and court mediators; the Dispute Resolution Center itself is a state office.
- ⚠ Law school — a common next step for paralegals, and ⚠ note honestly that a JD is not required to practise mediation in Florida, so it is worth deciding which career you actually want before incurring the cost.
- Florida context: the 20 judicial circuits and their ADR programmes; large insurance defence and plaintiff firms across Tampa, Orlando, Miami and Jacksonville; the construction industry (⚠ heavily arbitration-based, and Florida has a very large construction sector); healthcare systems; the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings; employment and family practices statewide; and community mediation centres, which are also where new mediators get their required observations and co-mediations.
- ⚠⚠ The practical advice: start the mediator-certification requirements while you are a student. Observations and mentorship take time to accumulate, community mediation centres welcome students, and the training programmes are approved and listed publicly. Nobody tells paralegal students this and it is the highest-value thing in this section.
Special Information
Offering Notes — offerings and hours, school by school
| Institution | Its title | Credits | Contact hours |
|---|
| St. Petersburg College | Alternative Dispute Resolution | 3 | not published |
| Florida Gulf Coast University | Alternative Dispute Resolution | 3 | not published |
| University of West Florida | Alternative Dispute Resolution | 3 | not published |
✅ One Florida College System institution and two State University System institutions, identical titles, identical credit values. ⚠ There is nothing to resolve on this number, and the statewide transferability note is "guaranteed transfer to institution offering same course."
⚠⚠ Worth saying because most numbers in this catalog are not like this, and because the FCS-to-SUS pairing is the case Florida's system exists to serve: a student completing this course at St. Petersburg College as part of an A.S. in paralegal studies and continuing to a bachelor's at FGCU or UWF has the straightforward transfer this numbering system was designed to produce. The standing advice to carry a syllabus is precautionary here rather than necessary.
⚠ The 45 contact hours at the top of this guide are derived — the Florida convention for a 3-credit lecture course. No institution publishes an hour figure. ⚠ Expect simulation sessions to run longer than a normal class block: a role-played mediation does not fit neatly into fifty minutes, and courses commonly schedule extended sessions or require out-of-class simulation time with classmates.
⚠⚠ The three-course prerequisite is real — and it tells you what kind of course this is
The statewide prerequisite is `PLA1003`, `PLA2273` and `BUL2130`:
| Number | What it is | Why this course needs it |
|---|
PLA1003 | Introduction to the paralegal profession | ⚠ the ethics and unauthorised-practice-of-law foundation, which this course applies constantly |
PLA2273 | Legal research / civil litigation | you cannot prepare a mediation summary without knowing the procedural posture of a case |
BUL2130 | Business law | ⚠ a settlement agreement is a contract, and an arbitration clause is a contract term |
⚠ Check your own catalog — institutions vary and may substitute their own equivalents — but the shape of the gate is informative: this is a capstone-adjacent applied course inside a paralegal programme, not a general elective on conflict resolution. ⚠⚠ Students from outside paralegal studies who want the negotiation and mediation content should ask whether the prerequisites are enforced, and if they are, look for a `MAN`, `SPC`, `BUL` or `POS` negotiation or conflict course instead.
⚠⚠⚠ The unauthorised practice of law — the boundary this course must teach
⚠⚠ This is the most consequential professional content in the course, and it is specific to ADR because mediation puts a paralegal in a room with unrepresented people who will ask questions.
In Florida, a paralegal works under the supervision of a member of the Bar and may not: give legal advice, tell a party whether to accept a settlement, evaluate the merits of a claim for a party, represent a client at a mediation without the supervising attorney, or hold themselves out as able to do any of those. ⚠ What a paralegal may do is substantial: prepare and organise documents and exhibits, draft summaries and agreements for attorney review, manage scheduling and logistics, communicate factual information, and support a client's preparation.
⚠⚠⚠ The trap is the sympathetic one. A party at mediation, often without a lawyer, asks a friendly paralegal whether the offer on the table is fair. Answering is the unauthorised practice of law, and "I can't advise you on that — let me get the attorney" is the whole of the required response. ⚠ Learn the sentence. It protects the client, the firm, the Bar's licensure scheme, and your own career.
⚠ Note also the mediator's parallel constraint, which the course covers alongside: a certified mediator — even one who is a lawyer — does not advise the parties either. Self-determination by the parties is the defining principle of mediation, and a mediator who tells people what to do has stopped mediating. The two boundaries reinforce each other and are easier to learn together.
⚠⚠ Florida mediator certification — the pathway, and why it belongs in this guide
⚠ The Florida Supreme Court certifies mediators in categories — county, circuit civil, family, dependency and appellate — and certification is administered by the Florida Courts' Dispute Resolution Center.
What makes this worth a student's attention:
- ⚠⚠⚠ A law degree is not required for all categories. Certification generally rests on a combination of education and experience points, completion of a Supreme-Court-approved training programme, observations of and co-mediations under a certified mediator, good moral character, and adherence to the Rules for Certified and Court-Appointed Mediators. ⚠ The exact requirements are set by the Court and are revised — verify them against the Dispute Resolution Center's current published standards rather than any secondary summary, including this one.
- ⚠⚠ The observation and mentorship components take TIME to accumulate, which is why starting as a student matters. Community mediation centres and county-court programmes welcome student observers, and those hours count toward what certification wants.
- ⚠ Ask your instructor whether the course itself is, or can be paired with, an approved training programme. Some paralegal programmes arrange this; most do not advertise it.
⚠ Also worth knowing: the Florida Registered Paralegal designation through the Florida Bar is a separate, voluntary credential with its own education and experience requirements. It is not required to work as a paralegal in Florida and it is a differentiator in hiring. Check the Bar's current requirements.
Position in the curriculum, workload and the failure mode
A 3000-level course, taken late in an A.S. or within a bachelor's paralegal or legal-studies programme. ⚠ ABA approval of a paralegal programme is worth asking about — it is not required to work in Florida, and some employers prefer it.
Budget seven to nine hours a week. ⚠ The load is reading, drafting and simulation preparation, and ⚠⚠ the simulations require coordinating with classmates outside class, which students routinely underestimate. Agree times with your role-play partners in week one.
⚠⚠⚠ The characteristic failure in this course is specific and instructive: students negotiate to win. They arrive treating a simulated mediation as a contest, argue positions, and produce impasse. The course is teaching the opposite — that positions are usually proxies for interests, that the interests are often compatible even when the positions are not, and that a mediated agreement both sides will actually perform is worth more than a better-sounding one that collapses.
⚠ The second failure is drafting. A settlement agreement that is vague about who pays what, by when, and what happens on default is a future lawsuit, and students consistently underestimate how specific it must be. Draft as though the parties will fall out — because the ones who end up in court are the ones who did.
⚠ A note on difficult material
⚠ Where the course covers family, dependency or workplace mediation, the case material involves divorce, custody, child protection, harassment and sometimes domestic violence. Some students in a paralegal programme have personal experience of these matters.
⚠⚠ Two things worth saying. A good instructor gives notice before difficult material and does not require personal disclosure in a simulation — you are never obliged to draw on your own history. And domestic-violence screening is itself course content rather than an aside: ⚠ Florida's rules recognise that mediation can be inappropriate where there is a power imbalance or a history of violence, and knowing when a case should NOT be mediated is part of competent practice. If the material is distressing, every Florida public institution provides free counselling to enrolled students, and the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available to anyone at any hour.
AI Integration
Genuinely useful, and some of it is now ordinary in legal practice: explaining a process or a doctrine a second way; summarising long rules, statutes and case material to decide what to read; drafting a first pass at a mediation summary, a position statement or a settlement agreement for you to correct; generating practice scenarios and counter-arguments; helping prepare for a simulation by predicting the other side's interests; organising exhibits and chronologies; and tightening prose.
⚠ One legitimately strong use: rehearsing a difficult conversation. Practising how to decline to give legal advice, or how to deliver an unwelcome position, is exactly the kind of rehearsal these tools are good for and students are reluctant to do with a person.
⚠⚠ Where it fails, and the first two are professional-liability matters rather than academic ones:
- ⚠⚠⚠ NEVER put client or party information into an AI tool. Confidentiality is the profession's foundation, ⚠ and mediation confidentiality is additionally protected by Florida statute. Pasting a mediation summary, a party's position, or a settlement term into a chat interface is a disclosure whether or not anyone notices. De-identify properly, or better, use hypotheticals. This is the most likely way a new paralegal gets into serious trouble with these tools.
- ⚠⚠⚠ It invents case law, statutes, rules and citations — and in the legal field this has produced real, published sanctions against real lawyers. ⚠ Every authority must be read in the original: the Florida statute on the Legislature's site, the rule on flcourts.gov, the case on a real database or Cornell LII. "It cited a case" is not evidence the case exists.
- ⚠⚠ Florida-specific rules are exactly where it is weakest. Mediator certification categories, the confidentiality exceptions, court-ordered mediation procedure and the Rules for Certified and Court-Appointed Mediators are state-specific and revised — and generated answers tend to blend Florida with other states or with federal practice. Use the Dispute Resolution Center.
- ⚠⚠ A generated draft agreement is not a settlement agreement. It will read plausibly and omit the operative terms — default, timing, releases, confidentiality, who bears costs. It is a starting structure for a human to complete, and it must go to the supervising attorney regardless.
- ⚠ It cannot mediate, and it cannot read a room. The skills this course is really building — noticing what a party actually wants, managing an emotional moment, judging when to caucus — are judgements about people in real time.
- ⚠ And a boundary specific to this course: using it to produce advice-shaped output edges toward the very line the UPL material teaches. A paralegal who relays a model's assessment of whether an offer is fair has given legal advice, with an extra step in between.
⚠ The professional framing: the supervising attorney signs, and the firm carries the liability. Use these tools for structure, summarisation and drafting speed; read every authority yourself; keep every confidence; and route every judgement to the person licensed to make it.
Academic integrity: read your syllabus, and expect a legal-studies programme's policy to be strict — ⚠ the coursework is preparation for a profession with its own disciplinary machinery, and programmes reasonably treat integrity here as a professionalism matter. Where the assessment is a simulation, the performance is observed and the question settles itself.