As imposing as mandatory settlement conferences can be, the judge or settlement officer cannot force the parties to settle, only to attend. (Photo: BOKEH STOCK/Shutterstock.com)
Plaintiffs and defendants often describe their goals in emotional terms: "Make me whole," "I want vindication," "Teach them a lesson," "I demand justice," "This must never happen again," and perhaps the most realistic goal, "I just want this to end." Even that simple goal, closure, has become less available than it used to be.
Why ADR? Why now?
The civil justice system provides a fair set of rules, also called due process: fair notice of the deadlines and fair opportunities for the parties to make their case to the judge or jury. As the American Judges Association explained in a 2007 white paper, "[P]eople are . . . more willing to accept and abide by the decisions of judges when those decisions seem to have been made fairly. And their views of judges, the court system, and the law are more favorable following an experience in which their case is handled via a fair procedure."
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