At Post Polak, we leverage our vast experience across a wide range of practice areas to help parties settle disputes at all stages. From resolving pre-filing conflicts to post-trial appeals, Post Polak attorneys serve in a variety of roles to resolve matters efficiently by providing representation or neutral services that deliver results.
Post Polak’s ADR practice offers early neutral evaluation, mediation, non-binding or binding arbitration, and other creative techniques to provide confidential, efficient, and cost-effective solutions to resolve any form of legal conflict. Post Polak attorneys can provide a custom-tailored solution for a specific complex problem or allow the flexibility for the parties to create the appropriate approach to solve their conflict.
At all stages of litigation, our attorneys evaluate the most appropriate and effective resolution strategies to reach a party’s goals, whether serving as an advocate or a neutral.
Mediation and Early Neutral Evaluation
Mediation and early neutral evaluation provides a flexible, confidential process in which a neutral person facilitates settlement negotiations. The mediator or neutral does not decide the merits of the dispute. Instead, the mediator fosters communication with opposing parties, helps articulate a party’s interests and those of the other party, probes the strengths and weaknesses of each party’s positions, to help identify and generate options for a mutually agreeable resolution to the dispute.
A mediator assists the parties in arriving at their own solution. The parties retain ultimate control over the process and the resolution that may occur with a settlement putting an early end to the case.
In mediation, the mediator is a third party, attempting to facilitate an agreed upon resolution of the dispute. The willingness of the parties to settle a dispute through compromise makes the mediation work.
There are a number of advantages of mediation: speed of resolution, which minimizes the cost of the dispute resolution; a non-adversarial setting; confidentiality and finality. Once a settlement is reached the matter is concluded and there is no appeal.
The most distinguishing aspect of mediation is that the parties reach their own agreement in ways that are consistent with their interests and their legal rights. Unlike a court trial where the judge or jury make the decision, all parties in a mediation have input into the resolution of the dispute.
Arbitration
Arbitration provides a forum to submit a dispute to one or more neutral people, who review the evidence, hear arguments, take testimony as needed, and render an opinion.
Arbitration, whether binding or non-binding, differs from mediation in that it provides a trial-like setting in the which the parties or arbitrator can set the procedures. After the presentation of evidence, whether written or through sworn testimony, the arbitrator or panel of arbitrators renders a decision. In a non-binding arbitration, the arbitrator’s decision may be accepted or rejected by the parties. In a binding arbitration the decision of the arbitrator ends the case.
Areas of Expertise
The ADR team at Post Polak assists in resolving the following kinds of disputes:
Our team members are trained and experienced to help parties resolve their disputes, often in creative ways, by focusing on what matters to deliver results as efficiently as possible.
