1 Down, 1 to Go

Today I finished my first final of the spring 2006 exam season and boy was it tough. It was one of those finals where everything you studied appeared as if it wasn't going to be the test. I'm not too worried, I'm sure the end result will be fine. Today's test was Dispute Resolution, a course focusing on litigation alternatives, such as settlement negotiation, mediation, and arbitration.

A settlement negotiation is when two parties attempt to reconcile their dispute absent a third party neutral. The parties typically find reconcilation in the form of a mutually acceptable agreement. The ease in crafting the agreement depends on the scope of the disagreement. Some disputes are zero-sum, where a gain for one party is a loss for another, while other disputes are multi-issue, which may allow for one party to make concessions that don't result in a loss to the other party.

Mediations typically involve two parties attempting to reconcile their disptue with the help of a third party neutral. Depending on the fancy of the parties, the mediator can either be facilative or evaluative. A facilative neutral only listens, she doesn't interject her thoughts on the disagreement; whereas, a evaluative neutral listens to both parties and evaluates how the disagreement could play out in court. Either way, the mediator's primary job is to help the parties create a resolution, as oppose to the mediator creating a resolution. Mediations are normally non-binding, i.e. the parties don't have to stick to their agreement and are free to pursue other methods of reconcilation after it concludes.

Arbitration is similar to mediation because it involves two parties attempting to reconcile their dispute with the help of a third party neutral. However, it differs because the third party neutral doesn't just help the parties come to an agreement, the arbitrator makes an agreement. In other words, the arbitrator acts like a judge and picks a favorable side. Arbitrations results are normally binding on parties; therefore, parties are expected to following the suggestions of the arbitrator. The cool thing about arbitrations is they are creatures of contract. In other words, disputing parties can create their own funky rules of goverence and list acceptable remedies.

The above ramblings about alternative dispute resolutions is far from exhasutive and probably doesn't even qualify for an overview on the respective topics. If you're interested in learning more about the topics, I would suggest checking your local library. I can't believe I just wrote a post on this.