If you watch some of any popular law series on TV, you would believe that every litigant has his day in court in front of a judge and jury. Statistics tell us a different story. According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, less than 1% of all civil cases filed in federal court reach trial—the number actually is a stunning 0.7%. Whether the reasons are due to the high costs of trying a case and or the uncertainty of a jury, litigants and their counsel are taking case resolution into their own hands. As a result, alternative dispute resolution has boomed, creating its own industry where retired judges and attorneys preside as mediators and arbitrators.
With the right preparation and planning, mediation can prove to be a powerful tool for resolving high exposure cases. In this article, we review considerations that should be addressed to set your high exposure case up for settling success.
