Non-judicial forms of dispute resolution are gaining wide popularity among industries looking to simplify the often complex and costly process of conflict resolution. With ADR, the responsibility of the process lies with the parties themselves, not the courts. The parties select a neutral based on his/her subject matter expertise.

Need for ADR

You might think that in today's highly litigious environment, the disdain for litigation and the search for non-litigated solutions are novel.
They're not:

• "Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever possible. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser . . . in fees, expenses and waste of time."
  Abraham Lincoln
  
  
• "I was never ruined but twice . . . once when I lost a lawsuit, once when I won one."
  Voltaire
  
  
• "Today neither judges nor lawyers need worry about being put out of business by arbitration . . . In the public interest, we must move toward taking a large volume of private conflicts out of the courts and into the channels of arbitration, mediation and conciliation."
  Warren Burger, Chief Justice
  United States Supreme Court
  
  
• "The mediator gets to experience one of life's pleasures, the resolution of human conflict."
  Donald T. Saposnek, Mediator
  Author, Mediating Child Custody Disputes
  
  
• "Like a good doctor who first attempts to heal through nutrition and natural remedies and only resorts to drugs and harsh measures when natural means fail, a judge should first attempt to resolve a claim through compromise and mediation, and only turn to the stricter letter of the law when this milder and preferable means fails."
  12th Century Commentary on Judicial Ethics of
  Rabbinical Courts
  
  
• "Many American disputants have the tendency to go to court because they want to challenge their adversaries rather than come to terms with them."
  de Tocqueville, 19th Century
  
  
• "If someone brings a lawsuit against you and takes you to court, settle the dispute with him while there is time, before you get to court. Once you are there, he will turn you over to the judge, who will hand you over to the police, and you will be put in jail. There you will stay, I tell you, until you pay the last penny of your fine."
  Matthew 5:25
  
  
• "The United States has a world class reputation for litigiousness and confrontation."
  Robert Coulson, Esq., President
  American Arbitration Association
  
  
• "When the tissue of life is woven of legalistic relation, there is an atmosphere of moral mediocrity, paralyzing man's noblest impulses."
  Alexander Solzhenitsyn
  
  (Quotations compiled by, and presented at, the October 12, 2000, General Meeting of the Justice Marie L. Garibaldi American Inn of Court for Alternative Dispute Resolution, by Mr. Tom Farrell of the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts.)
  
  
• "If we were to oppose him with a parallel set speech, then another speech from him in turn, then another from us, we should have to count and measure the blessings mentioned in each side, and we should need some judges to decide the case. If, on the other hand, we investigate the question by seeking agreement with each other, then we can ourselves be both the judges and the advocates."
  Plato's Republic
  (translated by G.M.A. Grube)
  Hockett Publishing Company, 1974
  
  
• "You don't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you get what you need."
  Mick Jagger
  
  (Quotations appearing in John R. Van Winkle, Mediation - A Path Back for the Lost Lawyer (c.2001, American Bar Association))
  
  

General Benefits of ADR

• ADR processes, e.g., mediation, average 1% or less than the cost of a fully litigated solution, with mediation typically being 80% successful*
• Complete confidentiality of the process and results
• Ad hoc nature of ADR motivates win-win solutions that meet legitimate business interests of all parties
• Greater control of the process by all parties, including selection of a qualified neutral
• Voluntary and often non-binding process
• Ideal for international disputes - agreements more easily enforced than a U.S. court judgment
• No court bureaucracy
• Accessible and informal
• By contrast, litigation is risky, time consuming, intrusive and inordinately expensive

*In a recent CPR survey, average legal costs savings of 652 companies using ADR were estimated to be $300,000 each. Read more here.

Benefits of Mediation

A mediation often costs less than 1% of a full-blown litigation yet offers an 80% success rate. In our experience, even where a mediation fails, each party still benefits tremendously from having tried it.

Through the aid of a skilled mediator, mediation converts a confrontational, emotionally-charged, positional environment into one focused on interest-based, collaborative problem-solving. Doing so dramatically improves inter-party communication to the point of yielding a candid information exchange that often produces an enlightened understanding by each party participant of the interests of all the others along with the "real" risks to each in continuing a lawsuit.

Where a mediation fails, the inter-parties problem-solving environment frequently continues well after the process concludes. This environment, catalyzed by the invaluable knowledge gained by each party during the mediation and augmented by further thought and analysis by all, dramatically improves the odds that a favorable settlement will be reached in short order.

Why Michaelson & Associates?

• Well-known for ADR expertise and experience
• Successful and growing ADR arbitration and mediation record (see recent accomplishments)
• Recognized by the CPR Institute as a Leader in Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Pete Michaelson has extensive arbitration/mediation training. He is a member of various ADR panels; for example, the CPR Distinguished Panel of Neutrals, WIPO Panel of Arbitrators and Mediators, an LCIA and ICC arbitrator, and a mediator for the NJ Superior Court.
  
  (Read letters of commendation)