Procedural justice in Alternative Dispute Resolution: Fairness judgments among users of Financial Ombudsman services in Germany and the United Kingdom

This article uses the lens of procedural justice theory to explore peoples’ experiences of an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) model: ombudsman services. We focus on two specific services that deal with complaints about financial services in Germany and the UK. Using and expanding upon procedural justice theory we ask two key questions: is the complaints process more important than its outcome; and does the importance of process and outcome vary between countries? In both countries we find a strong association between perceptions of procedural justice and outcomes such as overall perceptions of fairness, confidence in the ombudsman service, and decision acceptance. Against expectations, these associations are broadly invariant across the German and UK samples; but, despite this, all else equal German respondents expressed consistently more positive views. Our data add some nuance to the existing literature on procedural justice and suggest that the national context also plays a role in people’s decision-acceptance of ombudsmen. We suggest that national legal cultures provide for a framework of rules that guide people’s perceptions and behaviors in legal, quasi-legal and related environments

How Do Complainants Experience the Ombuds Procedure? Detecting cultural patterns of disputing behavior: A comparative analysis of users that complain about financial services

Are systems we use for resolving disputes designed in a user-friendly manner? What motivates us to accept a decision handed down by an ombuds? There is scant empirical evidence to help understand what users of ombuds expect from them and what informs these expectations. Yet, in a recent wide-ranging study Creutzfeldt (2016) asked people who had just been through an ombuds procedure about precisely these issues. Exploring the importance of fairness perceptions for ombuds procedures, one of the findings of the project was that decision-acceptance (and trust) was linked to users being heard, having a voice, and especially their “first impressions” of the ombuds. Does this finding hold true across different jurisdictions, though? By focusing on users of the German insurance ombuds (Versicherungsombudsmann) and the Financial Ombudsman Services (FOS) in the UK, this chapter will explore how procedural justice matters in different ways in different legal cultures. The data reveal culturally distinct narratives about expectations towards ombuds, which we suggest is partially a result of the different legal socialization experiences of people in Germany and the UK. Having identified patterns within the private sector, lessons learned for the public sector are discussed. We conclude this chapter with some thoughts as to how this study might direct future understandings of user experience and future research

A voice for change? Trust relationships between ombudsmen, individuals and public service providers

There has been a debate for years about what the role of the ombudsman is. This article examines a key component of the role, to promote trust in public services and government. To be able to do this, however, an ombudsman needs to be perceived as legitimate and be trusted by a range of stakeholders, including the user. This article argues that three key relationships in a person’s complaint journey can build trust in an institution, and must therefore be understood as a system. The restorative justice framework is adapted to conceptualize this trust model as a novel approach to understanding the institution from the perspective of its users. Taking two public sector ombudsmen as examples, the article finds that voice and trust need to be reinforced through the relationships in a consumer journey to manage individual expectations, prevent disengagement, and thereby promote trust in the institution, in public service providers, and in government

Thinking holistically about procedural justice in alternative dispute resolution: a case study of the German Federal Ombud Scheme

This paper examines data collected from users of the German Federal Ombud Scheme. The data was collected as part of a research project to understand how the German Federal Ombud Scheme operates in practice and how its procedures and outcomes are accepted by its users. We begin from the premise that experience of procedural justice during this alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process will build institutional legitimacy, and the paper makes three contributions to the literature on procedural justice. First, we extend evidence of the link between procedural justice and legitimacy to a novel institutional context that is different in many ways to the criminal justice focus of much of the extant literature. Second, we consider the motivations of service users to engage with ADR as potential moderators of that link. Third, we analyse the relationship between procedural justice, subjective outcomes, and the actual outcomes provided to service users. Overall, we conclude that the link between procedural justice and legitimacy can be identified among those with very different motivations for using the German Federal Ombud Scheme

The 2018–2023 drought in Berlin: impacts and analysis of the perspective of water resources management

The years 2018 to 2023 were characterised by extreme hydrometeorological conditions, with record-high average annual air temperatures and record-low annual precipitation across large regions of Europe. Berlin, the capital of Germany, is potentially vulnerable to drought conditions due to its location in a relatively dry region with relatively high water demand and complex water resources management in the Spree and Obere Havel catchments. To address the impacts of the 2018–2023 drought, various water resources management measures were implemented in Berlin and in the Spree and Obere Havel catchments. As a case study of how droughts impact large cities, we analysed observed and modelled time series of hydrometeorological, hydrogeological, and hydrological variables in Berlin and the Spree and Obere Havel catchments to characterise the years 2018–2023 in comparison with long-term averages. We found that the meteorological drought propagated into soil moisture drought and hydrological drought, e.g. in terms of record-low groundwater and surface water levels and streamflow, with smaller rivers drying up. Due to the intensity and duration of the drought, water resources management was only able to partially counteract the drought situation, so water use was partially limited, e.g. in terms of shipping. Enhanced proportions of sewage water and reverse flow were associated with detectable concentrations of trace substances. However, Berlin's water supply was always guaranteed and represents a stable system. Climate change is expected to lead to more frequent meteorological droughts, which will have more severe hydrological impacts in the future due to socioeconomic changes in Berlin (increasing population) and the catchments (termination of mining discharges). Therefore, water resources management in Berlin and in the Spree and Obere Havel catchments needs to be adapted to combat such situations, taking into account the lessons learned from the 2018–2023 drought and possible future developments. This integrative and multidisciplinary study can help better assess drought impacts in the Berlin–Brandenburg region and guide water management planning under potentially drier conditions. We suggest that the integrative approach presented here can be transferred and adapted to study drought impacts on other large cities.</p

Rapid and objective assessment of neural function in autism spectrum disorder using transient visual evoked potentials

OBJECTIVE: There is a critical need to identify biomarkers and objective outcome measures that can be used to understand underlying neural mechanisms in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) offer a noninvasive technique to evaluate the functional integrity of neural mechanisms, specifically visual pathways, while probing for disease pathophysiology. METHODS: Transient VEPs (tVEPs) were obtained from 96 unmedicated children, including 37 children with ASD, 36 typically developing (TD) children, and 23 unaffected siblings (SIBS). A conventional contrast-reversing checkerboard condition was compared to a novel short-duration condition, which was developed to enable objective data collection from severely affected populations who are often excluded from electroencephalographic (EEG) studies. RESULTS: Children with ASD showed significantly smaller amplitudes compared to TD children at two of the earliest critical VEP components, P60-N75 and N75-P100. SIBS showed intermediate responses relative to ASD and TD groups. There were no group differences in response latency. Frequency band analyses indicated significantly weaker responses for the ASD group in bands encompassing gamma-wave activity. Ninety-two percent of children with ASD were able to complete the short-duration condition compared to 68% for the standard condition. CONCLUSIONS: The current study establishes the utility of a short-duration tVEP test for use in children at varying levels of functioning and describes neural abnormalities in children with idiopathic ASD. Implications for excitatory/inhibitory balance as well as the potential application of VEP for use in clinical trials are discussed

A quality assessment of Spatial TDR soil moisture measurements in homogenous and heterogeneous media with laboratory experiments

Investigation of transient soil moisture profiles yields valuable information of near- surface processes. A recently developed reconstruction algorithm based on the telegraph equation allows the inverse estimation of soil moisture profiles along coated, three rod TDR probes. Laboratory experiments were carried out to prove the results of the inversion and to understand the influence of probe rod deformation and solid objects close to the probe in heterogeneous media. Differences in rod geometry can lead to serious misinterpretations in the soil moisture profile, but have small influence on the average soil moisture along the probe. Solids in the integration volume have almost no effect on average soil moisture, but result in locally slightly decreased moisture values. Inverted profiles obtained in a loamy soil with a clay content of about 16% were in good agreement with independent measurements