Find an Alternative Dispute Resolution Lawyer

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) refers to any problem-solving methods or techniques for settling disputes outside of the courtroom. The range of forms that ADR can take is called the ADR continuum: negotiation, mediation, settlement conference, early neutral evaluation, mini-trial, summary jury trial, med-arb, arbitration. Many of these techniques have been used throughout history, but have only recently become institutionalized because of the need for efficient and cost effective dispute settlement outside of the United States legal system. This is only because access to courts is becoming increasingly time consuming as well as stressful and expensive. Alternative dispute resolution has also grown rapidly in the United States because of the political and civil conflicts of the 1960s. The new laws passed during that time, to protect the rights of individuals as well as to stop discrimination, caused more lawsuits to be filed in order to settle disputes. Thus more forms of dispute resolution were needed. Negotiation This is the process where the people involved in the dispute communicate with each other, directly, or indirectly about the issues on which they disagree in order to reach a settlement of their differences. Continued... By Elysse Kimberlin