The judicial system is often experienced as formidable to those who come to it for assistance. The courts generally treat every case similarly, applying the same rules of procedure and without a system for prioritizing claims.

A lawsuit typically means months or years of delay, immense expense and other stumbling blocks to an efficient conclusion. In suits involving money damages, plaintiffs end up receiving just a fraction of the total cost of litigation. In disputes involving government agencies or businesses, litigation often is too blunt a tool to accommodate the fine distinctions required to achieve a meaningful amicable resolution. In large class actions, the need to achieve systemic change or to resolve hundreds or thousands of individual claims poses great challenges to the judicial system.

There is a wise alternative to litigation and Summit Solutions provides it.

LITIGATION

Litigation is not just a “last resort.” It is a resort which can often be avoided.

Studies show that from 2% to 6% of lawsuits filed in the United States go to trial. Of those cases, a smaller percentage reaches a verdict since many settlements occur at the last moment. Thus, nearly all lawsuits ultimately are settled, but these settlements come at a high price in time and money. Courts are unpredictable. Juries are unfamiliar with legal principles and may bring biases to the process. Judicial procedures are burdensome, paper-intensive, and often repetitive. The litigation process is expensive and very lengthy. It typically takes years for a case to come to trial. After trial, appeals may add to the already substantial cost and delay.

Trials have additional costs beyond time and money. Personal, business or governmental confidences may be aired publicly, causing embarrassment, other losses or disruption. For individuals, there is a psychological toll to months and years of waiting. Government agencies and businesses may find services or improvements stalled while awaiting a judicial decision.

Class action or other group relief is a challenge to obtain or administer through traditional trial practice. Settlements are often quite complex. Negotiations may benefit from a neutral facilitator with experience in multifaceted litigation. Consent decrees may require a special master or court monitor to supervise implementation or adjudicate individual relief for class members.

In many disputes, the nuances and complexity of the situation are not amenable to the 'black and white' results which typify the courthouse option.

Lawsuits are very expensive and they return to the plaintiffs just a small portion of the value of incurred damages. For example, in the tort (personal injury) area,

When viewed as a method of compensating claimants, the U.S. tort system is highly inefficient, returning less than 50 cents on the dollar to the people it is designed to help — and returning only 22 cents of the tort-cost dollar to compensate for actual economic losses.

Tillinghast-Towers Perrin, U.S. Tort Costs: 2003 Update, Trends and Findings on the Costs of the U.S. Tort System at 9. Most money – 54% in total -- goes to defense costs (14%), administration (21%), and claimants’ attorneys’ fees (19%), with just 22% for economic and 24% for non-economic loss. Id. at 19 (chart below).

ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (ADR) WITH SUMMIT SOLUTIONS

There is an alternative to litigation.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is an attractive alternative to litigation or one-to-one negotiation, especially when practiced innovatively and with clients’ input into its design.

Whether invoked before or after a lawsuit is filed, ADR can provide rapid and fair relief. Cases can be resolved in weeks, not years. Parties can choose the neutral person who will assist them as well as the timing and location of the meetings or other proceedings. Expensive, often needless, legal motions, expert testimony, transcript and other trial expenses are eliminated or reduced. The rigidity and “one size fits all” courthouse process are avoided.

ADR with Summit Solutions can quickly address all non-criminal disputes which might otherwise be litigated. Summit Solutions can facilitate negotiation of complex class action settlements and provide special master or court monitor services to supervise implementation of class action or other decrees, whether involving individual claim adjudication or implementation of structural change.

• For individuals, businesses and organizations, ADR can address personal injury, property damage, matrimonial, contract, labor law, wrongful discharge, discrimination (e.g., race, religion, disability, gender), sexual harassment, landlord-tenant, real estate, construction, warranty, defamation (libel and slander), products liability, defamation, academic disputes, intellectual property, and all other civil disputes.



• For government agencies and corporations, both damages and injunction cases are appropriate for ADR. Where systemic policy changes are contested, ADR is immensely more sensitive and flexible than litigation since it provides the opportunity to resolve very complex issues with the needed attention to detail which may affect the agency’s operations and the tens of thousands of individuals it serves. Click here for detail on Summit Solutions’ special services in disputes involving government agencies and corporations.
  
• For nonprofit organizations, ADR allows the group to concentrate on its mission, free from the cost of litigation (a cost not included in the budget), and to secure quick resolution to disputes which drain the organization’s energy and divert attention from its goals.

SUBMITTING A DISPUTE

Unlike a lawsuit, submitting a dispute to Summit Solutions is simple, takes little time, and is free from bureaucracy. Your case is treated personally and professionally, and with the priority it deserves. Please call or email us, or use the form here, and we will take care of the rest.

You can submit a case to us without the opposing party’s agreement to alternative dispute resolution. We will assist you in obtaining that agreement so that, for both sides’ benefit, the dispute can be resolved quickly and fairly.

If you are simply seeking information at this time, please communicate with us in confidence and we will discuss with you (without charge) how Summit Solutions might be of assistance. Write us here.