What Is the Most Essential Ingredient Needed to Avoid or Settle a Lawsuit?

By Thomas F Meyer

More than nineteen million new lawsuits are filed every year. Almost 75% of them involve disputes over contracts. Most of these cases leave the legal system before anything is resolved leaving the parties to resolve their disputes out of court. In effect, the court system is often reduced to nothing more than an expensive middleman to the dispute resolution process. So, what purpose does litigation really serve to resolve any dispute?

Leverage is the KEY.

Lawsuits are often used to create leverage. Without leverage its tough to get anyone to agree to anything. Lawsuits get peoples' attention. They educate, they scare and they empower people. They also transform, for better and worse, the way people view their disputes. The irony of it all is that it's not the outcome in court which transforms anything, it's simply what people experience and learn by being caught up in the process. Statistics show that most people who file lawsuits later come to realize that they are almost always better off structuring their own settlements out of court rather than relying on the court to have the final word to determine what they will recover.

Hindsight is 20/20 but it's an expensive lesson. Experience shows that there are much cheaper and effective ways to create the leverage needed to resolve and prevent disputes. For example, a well drafted contract can go a long way to prevent disputes and keep you out of court.

Don't Shoot First, Ask Questions Later

Most people and businesses are too fast to sue and spend too much time and money in the court system before finally figuring out how to achieve a better result out of court. It is much more efficient to simply plan how to stay out of court or at least leave sooner vs. later. You shouldn't have to file a lawsuit to gain leverage. Rather, establish upfront, before any disputes arise, a workable process to try to resolve disagreements privately before allowing either side to race to the courthouse to file a lawsuit. Include such a process in your policies and procedures, in your contracts and in the operating agreements for all your businesses. That way, if and when a dispute does arise, you already have a plan in place to deal with it.

Most people would agree that the best way to resolve a dispute is privately without lawyers, judges, mediators, arbitrators or any other third parties. However, experience shows that people often need a little outside help to navigate through the anger, conflict and uncertainty surrounding a failed business deal or contract.

However, lawyers and litigation are not the only option. The mediation process is designed to turn people's attention away from the anger and emotions and refocus everyone's attention on the key economic issues of the case. The goal is to try to reach a binding settlement that all parties will agree to accept and honor.

Self-Determination

What sets mediation apart from either a judgment in court or an arbitration ruling is "self determination." You've heard the expression, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink?" That applies to a large extent to people and their disputes as well as horses. Just because a judge, a jury or an arbitrator makes a determination what someone is entitled to recover, there still remains a potential legal battle to fight to enforce the determination and collect if one of the parties is not happy with the decision. Mediation, on the other hand, is a process designed to transform, facilitate, educate and empower all parties to a lawsuit to resolve the case in such a way that at the end of the mediation session, there is no doubt that everyone has accepted and will honor the agreement. The fight is over.

Visit http://www.4disputes.com for more insights and solutions to prevent and resolve litigation and disputes.

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