Ready for Trial? Really?

"I was never ruined but twice; once when I lost a lawsuit, and once when I won one."
- Voltaire

Being ready to try a case does not mean that trial is the best way to proceed. An imminent trial often suggests that neither side was able to dispose of the case by summary judgment or otherwise, perhaps due to difficult facts, uncertain law, stubborn positions, or even a lack of resources.

As a trial date approaches, so may the realization that the central issues and decisions affecting your case are soon to be placed in the hands of an unpredictable judge or jury.

Mediation, in particular, offers the opportunity to avoid the time, cost, and uncertainty of trial and, instead, arrive at a timely, cost-effective, and certain result that satisfies all parties.

At BDRS, our mediation and other ADR services focus on litigation (and claims likely to end up in litigation) involving the following substantive areas and issues:

Business and Commercial, including contract, business torts, and unfair competition disputes

Class Action and Mass Torts, including products, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer issues

Construction, including defect, cost overrun, and delay claims

Employment and Workplace, including executive compensation, severance, non-competition, and non-disclosure issues

Entertainment, Fine Arts, Music, and Publishing, including credit and compensation, advances, royalties, contract disputes, and rights of publicity, reproduction,
distribution, derivative works, and performance

Insurance, including complex commercial and excess and surplus lines coverage disputes, Lloyd’s and other London Market or European insurance issues,
reinsurance, unfair claims settlement practices, and agent and broker errors and omissions claims

Intellectual Property, including copyright, trademark, and trade secrets

Lloyd’s and Other London Market or European Insurance, including Names/syndicate relations, underwriting, broking, duty of utmost good faith, U. S.
brokers and agents, U. S. syndicate operations

Media, Defamation, and Privacy, including libel and slander, invasion of privacy, false light portrayal, access

Professional Liability, including claims involving legal, medical, and financial professionals

Product Liability

Serious Personal Injury and Death

Trust and Estates, including will contests, beneficiary/trustee disputes, fiduciary duty issues

Unfair or Deceptive Practices, including bad faith and claims under M. G. L. c. 93A

Can you hear me now?

Can't seem to get the other party to listen?

Mediation is a voluntary, confidential, and informal process where an impartial third-party—the mediator—assists the parties in reaching a resolution of their dispute.

Although the mediator guides the process, the mediator is not acting as a
judge, arbitrator, or fact finder. The parties—not the mediator—decide how the dispute will be resolved.

At BDRS, mediation is based primarily on a facilitative model of mediation (derived in part from concepts developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project), where the mediator facilitates communication and negotiation among the parties, and helps the parties explore and define their interests and goals, and develop options for a resolution.

The process at BDRS is tailored as needed to meet the needs and desires of the parties, and to provide services in an efficient and productive manner.

Problem. Solved.

Litigation has an avaricious appetite for time and money—exacerbated by clogged court calendars, seemingly endless discovery (often including expensive electronic discovery), and ever-increasing fees and costs—and is imbued with a rigid process and a pervasive uncertainty as to outcome.

Isn’t there a better way?

There is.

Mediation is a way to resolve disputes that are in litigation, or to avoid the need to resort to court. Unlike litigation, mediation is a timely and cost-effective process that enables parties to resolve their disputes and achieve certainty.

For parties with an ongoing business relationship, mediation provides a less adversarial forum in which the parties can resolve their immediate conflict, and then move forward.

Saving money is always important, but especially so in our current economic downturn. Mediation is a great way to enhance your bottom line.