Alternative Dispute Resolution Essay

alternative dispute resolution Essay

Alternative Dispute Resolution or ADR refers to a number of various processes that can be used to resolve legal disputes other than by litigation. Recently, methods of dispute resolution which focus on arbitration, mediation and negotiation as an alternative to adjudication have gained notoriety. This notoriety may have been caused by the public perception that ADR methods are less expensive, more efficient, and more satisfactory than the normal traditional course of litigation. The goals of establishing these processes to resolve disputes as an alternative to more formal legal processes include: 1) to make the regular court system more efficient, less costly and more responsive to the needs of the litigants; ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...The first Uniform Arbitration Act was adopted in 1925, which provided only for the irrevocability of agreements to arbitrate existing disputes. The Federal Arbitration Act was enacted by Congress in 1925 changing the common law. The Act stated that written agreements to arbitrate existing or future disputes were valid, irrevocable, and enforceable. As arbitration became more widely accepted, statutes and acts were continuously passed enforcing agreements to arbitrate. In 1955, the second Uniform Arbitration Act was passed. In addition to enforcing existing agreements to arbitrate, this Act made agreements to arbitrate future disputes irrevocable.

From this brief history of ADR provisions, it is easy to see the widespread acceptance of ADR in more recent times compared to the hostility that courts expressed toward it early on. The trend of acceptance spread, and in May of 1986, forty–five states had enacted statutes similar to the second Uniform Arbitration Act, enforcing agreements to arbitrate future disputes.

With all of these acts and statutes being passed, it seemed as though arbitration was the way to go. But as more and more agreements to arbitrate future disputes were executed, other nonarbitral forms of alternative dispute resolution such as mediation and neutral fact–finding became common.

An agreement to mediate future disputes means that the parties want to present their side to a mediator, a third party who is neutral. This mediator's

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