Department of Justice May 31, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The first document, ``Protecting the Confidentiality of Dispute Resolution Proceedings: A Guide for Federal Workplace ADR Program Administrators'' (``Confidentiality Guide''), provides practical guidance to program administrators on the application of the confidentiality provisions of the Administrative Dispute Resolution Act of 1996, 5 U.S.C. 574, to Federal workplace dispute resolution programs. The second document is the ``Guide for Federal Employee Mediators'' (a supplementation and annotation of the 2005 Model Standards of Conduct for Mediators issued by the American Arbitration Association, American Bar Association, and the Association for Conflict Resolution), which is for use by federal employee mediators. The third document is the ``Guide for Federal Employee Ombuds'' (a supplementation and annotation of the Standards for the Establishment and Operations of Ombuds Offices issued on February 9, 2004 by the American Bar Association), prepared by the Steering Committee in conjunction with the Coalition for Federal Ombudsmen, for use by federal employee ombuds. Complete copies of each of the three final documents can be found at the IADRWG Web site, https://www.adr.gov (click on ``Guidance''), or may be requested in hard copy from Hon. Richard C. Walters, Administrative Judge, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Board of Contract Appeals (09), 810 Vermont Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20420, telephone 202-273-6747. In a Notice in the 70 FR 67901, Nov. 9, 2005, the Steering Committee invited interested individuals or organizations to submit comments, within 30 days, on the documents for consideration before they were posted in final form. Complete copies of the three draft guides to which the comments were addressed, as well as a summary of the comments received and disposition thereof for each guide, are posted at https://www.adr.gov (click on ``Library/Archives'').