Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Alternative dispute resolution
Alternative dispute resolution (ADR), or external dispute resolution (EDR), typically denotes a wide range of dispute resolution processes and techniques that parties can use to settle disputes with the help of a third party. They are used for disagreeing parties who cannot come to an agreement short of litigation. However, ADR is also increasingly being adopted as a tool to help settle disputes within the court system.
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.[when?] In 2008, some courts required some parties to resort to ADR of some type like mediation, before permitting the parties' cases to be tried (the European Mediation Directive (2008) expressly contemplates so-called "compulsory" mediation. This means that attendance is compulsory, not that settlement must be reached through mediation). Additionally, parties to merger and acquisition transactions are increasingly turning to ADR to resolve post-acquisition disputes. In England and Wales, ADR is now more commonly referred to as ‘NCDR’ (Non Court Dispute Resolution), in an effort to promote this as the normal (rather than alternative) way to resolve disputes. A 2023 judgment of the Court of Appeal called Churchill v Merthyr confirmed that in the right case the Court can order (i) the parties to engage in NCDR and / or (ii) stay the proceedings to allow for NCDR to take place. This overturns the previous orthodoxy (the 2004 Court of Appeal decision of Halsey v. Milton Keynes General NHS Trust) which was that unwilling parties could not be obliged to participate in NCDR.
The rising popularity of ADR can be explained by the increasing caseload of traditional courts, the perception that ADR imposes fewer costs than litigation, a preference for confidentiality, and the desire of some parties to have greater control over the selection of the individual or individuals who will decide their dispute. Some of the senior judiciary in certain jurisdictions (of which England and Wales is one) are strongly in favour of this use of mediation and other NCDR processes to settle disputes. Since the 1990s many American courts have also increasingly advocated for the use of ADR to settle disputes. However, it is not clear as to whether litigants can properly identify and then use the ADR programmes available to them, thereby potentially limiting their effectiveness.
The term "alternative dispute resolution" arose from Frank Sander's paper, "Varieties of Dispute Processing".
Traditional arbitration involved heads of trade guilds or other dominant authorities settling disputes. The modern innovation was to have commercial vendors of arbitrators, often ones with little or no social or political dominance over the parties. The advantage was that such persons were much more readily available. The disadvantage is that it does not involve the community of the parties. When wool contract arbitration was conducted by senior guild officials, the arbitrator combined a seasoned expert on the subject matter with a socially dominant individual whose patronage, goodwill and opinion were important.
ADR can increasingly be conducted online, which is known as online dispute resolution (ODR, which is mostly a buzzword and an attempt to create a distinctive product). ODR services can be provided by government entities, and as such may form part of the litigation process. Moreover, they can be provided on a global scale, where no effective domestic remedies are available to disputing parties, as in the case of the UDRP and domain name disputes. In this respect, ODR might not satisfy the "alternative" element of ADR. In England and Wales, the Online Procedure Rule Committee was set up under the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 to make rules governing the practice and procedure for specific types of online court and tribunal proceedings across the Civil, Family and Tribunal jurisdictions. OPRC is an advisory non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. The committee is chaired by the Master of the Rolls, Head of Civil Justice.
ADR has historically been divided between methods of resolving disputes outside of official judicial mechanisms and informal methods attached to official judicial mechanisms. Regardless of whether they are part of an overarching proceeding, the mechanisms are generally similar. There are four general classes of ADR: negotiation, mediation, collaborative law, and arbitration. In some contexts, such as in the settlement of investment disputes, arbitration is not considered as a form of ADR, since it is the principal means of settling these disputes. Some academics include conciliation as a fifth category, but others include this within the definition of mediation.[citation needed]
Conflict resolution is one major goal of all the ADR processes. If a process leads to resolution, it is a dispute resolution process. "Alternative" dispute resolution is usually considered to be alternative to litigation. For example, corporate dispute resolution can involve a customer service department handling disputes about its own products; addressing concerns between consumers and independent, third-party sellers; and participating in a reputation-based enforcement mechanism. It also can be used as a colloquialism for allowing a dispute to drop or as an alternative to violence.
Hub AI
Alternative dispute resolution AI simulator
(@Alternative dispute resolution_simulator)
Alternative dispute resolution
Alternative dispute resolution (ADR), or external dispute resolution (EDR), typically denotes a wide range of dispute resolution processes and techniques that parties can use to settle disputes with the help of a third party. They are used for disagreeing parties who cannot come to an agreement short of litigation. However, ADR is also increasingly being adopted as a tool to help settle disputes within the court system.
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.[when?] In 2008, some courts required some parties to resort to ADR of some type like mediation, before permitting the parties' cases to be tried (the European Mediation Directive (2008) expressly contemplates so-called "compulsory" mediation. This means that attendance is compulsory, not that settlement must be reached through mediation). Additionally, parties to merger and acquisition transactions are increasingly turning to ADR to resolve post-acquisition disputes. In England and Wales, ADR is now more commonly referred to as ‘NCDR’ (Non Court Dispute Resolution), in an effort to promote this as the normal (rather than alternative) way to resolve disputes. A 2023 judgment of the Court of Appeal called Churchill v Merthyr confirmed that in the right case the Court can order (i) the parties to engage in NCDR and / or (ii) stay the proceedings to allow for NCDR to take place. This overturns the previous orthodoxy (the 2004 Court of Appeal decision of Halsey v. Milton Keynes General NHS Trust) which was that unwilling parties could not be obliged to participate in NCDR.
The rising popularity of ADR can be explained by the increasing caseload of traditional courts, the perception that ADR imposes fewer costs than litigation, a preference for confidentiality, and the desire of some parties to have greater control over the selection of the individual or individuals who will decide their dispute. Some of the senior judiciary in certain jurisdictions (of which England and Wales is one) are strongly in favour of this use of mediation and other NCDR processes to settle disputes. Since the 1990s many American courts have also increasingly advocated for the use of ADR to settle disputes. However, it is not clear as to whether litigants can properly identify and then use the ADR programmes available to them, thereby potentially limiting their effectiveness.
The term "alternative dispute resolution" arose from Frank Sander's paper, "Varieties of Dispute Processing".
Traditional arbitration involved heads of trade guilds or other dominant authorities settling disputes. The modern innovation was to have commercial vendors of arbitrators, often ones with little or no social or political dominance over the parties. The advantage was that such persons were much more readily available. The disadvantage is that it does not involve the community of the parties. When wool contract arbitration was conducted by senior guild officials, the arbitrator combined a seasoned expert on the subject matter with a socially dominant individual whose patronage, goodwill and opinion were important.
ADR can increasingly be conducted online, which is known as online dispute resolution (ODR, which is mostly a buzzword and an attempt to create a distinctive product). ODR services can be provided by government entities, and as such may form part of the litigation process. Moreover, they can be provided on a global scale, where no effective domestic remedies are available to disputing parties, as in the case of the UDRP and domain name disputes. In this respect, ODR might not satisfy the "alternative" element of ADR. In England and Wales, the Online Procedure Rule Committee was set up under the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 to make rules governing the practice and procedure for specific types of online court and tribunal proceedings across the Civil, Family and Tribunal jurisdictions. OPRC is an advisory non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. The committee is chaired by the Master of the Rolls, Head of Civil Justice.
ADR has historically been divided between methods of resolving disputes outside of official judicial mechanisms and informal methods attached to official judicial mechanisms. Regardless of whether they are part of an overarching proceeding, the mechanisms are generally similar. There are four general classes of ADR: negotiation, mediation, collaborative law, and arbitration. In some contexts, such as in the settlement of investment disputes, arbitration is not considered as a form of ADR, since it is the principal means of settling these disputes. Some academics include conciliation as a fifth category, but others include this within the definition of mediation.[citation needed]
Conflict resolution is one major goal of all the ADR processes. If a process leads to resolution, it is a dispute resolution process. "Alternative" dispute resolution is usually considered to be alternative to litigation. For example, corporate dispute resolution can involve a customer service department handling disputes about its own products; addressing concerns between consumers and independent, third-party sellers; and participating in a reputation-based enforcement mechanism. It also can be used as a colloquialism for allowing a dispute to drop or as an alternative to violence.