This book brings together the expertise of two authors involved in initiating the development of Online Family Dispute Resolution (OFDR), while also examining the unique Australian system. The family arena generally comprises property or child-related disputes arising between parents, whether married or not, and whether the parties have lived together or not. A special feature of Australia's OFDR system is that it deals with children's issues rather than focusing on property distribution. The book first discusses how technological innovations have transformed dispute resolution services to families. It explores the need for OFDR and how such systems can potentially be implemented. In turn, the coverage shifts to screening tools used prior to a Family Dispute Resolution session to ensure that online systems are appropriate for the case under dispute and the people involved. Readers will then learn about the necessary training required - for administrators, practitioners and clients alike - for OFDR to be successful. In addition, the book offers a comprehensive evaluation of the system and reflects on the lessons learned to date. In closing, it suggests ways in which OFDR could be further developed and applied to family disputes around the world.

Knowledge Discovery from Legal Databases is the first text to describe data mining techniques as they apply to law. Law students, legal academics and applied information technology specialists are guided thorough all phases of the knowledge discovery from databases process with clear explanations of numerous data mining algorithms including rule induction, neural networks and association rules. Throughout the text, assumptions that make data mining in law quite different to mining other data are made explicit. Issues such as the selection of commonplace cases, the use of discretion as a form of open texture, transformation using argumentation concepts and evaluation and deployment approaches are discussed at length.

This book brings together the expertise of two authors involved in initiating the development of Online Family Dispute Resolution (OFDR), while also examining the unique Australian system. The family arena generally comprises property or child-related disputes arising between parents, whether married or not, and whether the parties have lived together or not. A special feature of Australia's OFDR system is that it deals with children's issues rather than focusing on property distribution. The book first discusses how technological innovations have transformed dispute resolution services to families. It explores the need for OFDR and how such systems can potentially be implemented. In turn, the coverage shifts to screening tools used prior to a Family Dispute Resolution session to ensure that online systems are appropriate for the case under dispute and the people involved. Readers will then learn about the necessary training required - for administrators, practitioners and clients alike - for OFDR to be successful. In addition, the book offers a comprehensive evaluation of the system and reflects on the lessons learned to date. In closing, it suggests ways in which OFDR could be further developed and applied to family disputes around the world.

Alternative dispute resolution has now supplanted litigation as the principal method of dispute resolution. This overview of dispute resolution addresses practical developments in areas such as family law, plea bargaining, industrial relations and torts. The authors elaborate on the necessary legal safeguards that should be taken into account when developing technology-enhanced dispute resolution and explore a wide range of potential applications for new information technologies in dispute resolution.

Knowledge Discovery from Legal Databases is the first text to describe data mining techniques as they apply to law. Law students, legal academics and applied information technology specialists are guided thorough all phases of the knowledge discovery from databases process with clear explanations of numerous data mining algorithms including rule induction, neural networks and association rules. Throughout the text, assumptions that make data mining in law quite different to mining other data are made explicit. Issues such as the selection of commonplace cases, the use of discretion as a form of open texture, transformation using argumentation concepts and evaluation and deployment approaches are discussed at length.

Traditional database systems have been able to manipulate large amounts of data efficiently, whilst artificial intelligence (and in particular expert systems) have reasoned with rules, but rarely with data. It has become evident that to build truly intelligent information systems, facilities are required from artificial intelligence and database and distributed technologies. This book consists of seventeen selected and revised papers on the next generation of information systems, based on papers presented at two workshops, one on integrating artificial intelligence and databases, and the other on intelligent and cooperating information systems. The papers address several core issues, such as intelligence, distribution, and multi-agent/cooperative systems, and focuses on designing and building such systems mainly through the use of intelligent agents. The book presents up-to-date developments in this interdisciplinary field, covering information systems, artificial intelligence, and distributed systems.