Nontraditional and Traditional Litigation Paper - Essay Example

Traditional and Nontraditional Litigation Introduction The traditional litigation process consists of procedures of “pleadings, discovery, dismissals, pretrial judgments, and settlement conference” (Cheeseman, 2010, p.35). Alternative dispute resolutions (ADR) includes “negotiation, mediation, conciliation, mini-trial, fact-finding, and using a judicial referee” (Cheeseman, 2010, p.43). This paper tends to compare and contrast the two types of dispute resolution. The thesis statement is that: for businesses, ADR tends to be more favorable as compared to the traditional litigation process.

Comparison and ContrastWhile going through traditional litigation process, businesses and organizations are at risk of losing their reputation. It is not in their good will, especially if they lose the case. This can result in loss of customers, which is destructive for the business. It takes years to build reputation, but one dispute brought into the court and published in the newspaper, will prove to be fatal for the organization’s name. Also, the litigation process may, at times, take years to end.

Such a long court process requires millions of dollars to be paid as legal fee. This weighs heavily on the organizations’ budgets. Alan Price and HRM Guide Network contributors (2011, para.1) discuss a report, Fight, Flight, or Fact It, which states that “the average British employee is spending more than two hours a week dealing with conflict. This adds up to the loss of more than 370 million working days a year, costing UK employers more than £24 billion.” This shows that workplace conflict costs too much even when the cases are not brought into the court.

We can imagine what it will cost when lawsuits are filed, and the dispute takes years to settle down. The regular business operations of the disputed parties also get disturbed. In contrast, Alternative dispute resolutions (ADR) prove to be a more appropriate measure of dispute resolution for business managers. In negotiation, parties try to reach an agreeable solution to resolve the dispute. In arbitration, a third party is chosen to listen to the disputed parties and solve the dispute. This third party, which is also called the arbitrator, belongs to the American Arbitration Association (AAA) or some other arbitration association.

Mediation is another fruitful method in which a neutral third party intervention is sought for reconciliation between individuals or groups. Moore (1996, p.15) defines mediation as, “an intervention … of an acceptable third party who has limited or no authoritative decision-making power but who assists the involved parties in voluntarily reaching a mutually acceptable settlement of issues in dispute.” Conciliation is the resolution strategy in which the parties are made to reach a solution when they do not want to confront each other.

Mini-trials are private proceedings in which the disputed parties hire lawyers, who present their cases to the both sides. In fact-finding, a neutral third party is hired to find facts regarding the dispute. The court also assigns a judicial referee to the parties involved, who acts as a judge and solves the dispute. ConclusionTo conclude, traditional litigation process has its limitations due to which ADRs are becoming popular within organizations for conflict resolution. Traditional litigation process harms reputation, and is a costly and long process; while, ADRs protect privacy while saving budget and time.

Hence, ADRs tend to be more favorable than traditional litigation process. ReferencesCheeseman, H.R. (2010). Pretrial litigation process. Business Law: Legal Environment, Online Commerce, Business Ethics, and International Issues, Seventh Edition. USA: Prentice Hall. Moore, C. (1996). The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Price, A., & HRM Guide Network Contributors. (2011). Mediation and conflict resolution at work. HRM Guide.

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