ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION ALERT

Alternative Dispute Resolution or ADR (meaning usually mediation) has been a fad in the law schools for at least the last twenty years, judging from my own experience and that of one of our summer clerks. It has been hailed as a means to keep down litigation costs and bring global harmony, etc. The cold hard reality is that a matter in litigation or headed that way will not settle by mediation or some other method of negotiation until both sides see it in their self-interest to do so and each understands the strengths and weaknesses of their positions. Mediation/negotiation for the sake of negotiation is a waste of time. By the way, the same applies in the diplomacy and foreign policy context. What is generating this rant? A fruitness, all-day mediation yesterday that ended with the parties half a million dollars apart.