Alternative Dispute Resolution, A Professional Law Corporation
Located in Oldtown Salinas, Monterey County
60 West Alisal Street, Suite 101, Salinas CA 93901
+1 (831) 783-0779
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Alternative Dispute Resolution, APC
P.O. Box 1411
Salinas CA, 93902
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“Alternative” dispute resolution, also known as “ADR” is considered to be an alternative to litigation and it provides significant benefits as compared to its alternative. These ADR benefits are discussed in detail on this website.
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Description of Alternative Dispute Resolution by Wikipedia®
Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) includes dispute resolution processes and techniques that act as a means for disagreeing parties to come to an agreement short of litigation. Despite historic resistance to ADR by many popular parties and their advocates, ADR has gained widespread acceptance among both the general public and the legal profession in recent years. In fact, some courts now require some parties to resort to ADR of some type, usually mediation, before permitting the parties’ cases to be tried.
ADR is generally classified into at least four types: negotiation, mediation, collaborative law, and arbitration.
The salient features of each type are as follows:
- In negotiation, participation is voluntary and there is no third party who facilitates the resolution process or imposes a resolution.
- In mediation, there is a third party, a mediator, who facilitates the resolution process, but does not impose a resolution on the parties.
- In collaborative law or collaborative divorce, each party has an attorney who facilitates the resolution process within specifically contracted terms. The parties reach agreement with support of the attorneys (who are trained in the process) and mutually-agreed experts. No one imposes a resolution on the parties. However, the process is a formalized process that is part of the litigation and court system. Rather than being an Alternative Resolution methodology it is a litigation variant that happens to rely on ADR like attitudes and processes.
- In arbitration, participation is typically voluntary, and there is a third party who, as a private judge, imposes a resolution. Arbitrations often occur because parties to contracts agree that any future dispute concerning the agreement will be resolved by arbitration.
Beyond the basic types of alternative dispute resolutions there are other different forms of ADR:
- Case evaluation: a non-binding process in which parties present the facts and the issues to a neutral case evaluator who advises the parties on the strengths and weaknesses of their respective positions, and assesses how the dispute is likely to be decided by a jury or other adjudicator.
- Early neutral evaluation: a process that takes place soon after a case has been filed in court. The case is referred to an expert who is asked to provide a balanced and neutral evaluation of the dispute. The evaluation of the expert can assist the parties in assessing their case and may influence them towards a settlement.
- Family group conference: a meeting between members of a family and members of their extended related group. At this meeting (or often a series of meetings) the family becomes involved in learning skills for interaction and in making a plan to stop the abuse or other ill-treatment between its members.
- Neutral fact-finding: a process where a neutral third party, selected either by the disputing parties or by the court, investigates an issue and reports or testifies in court. The neutral fact-finding process is particularly useful for resolving complex scientific and factual disputes.
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