Practice Management

ADR Risings

By Dan Hull

For lawyers, depositions are like CAT Scans. It seems you can never be faulted for doing one too many.

If we can ever get international arbitration and mediation away from litigators like me, and over to the true "resolvers", it may work as it was intended, and as many GCs still want it to work. In the meantime, do read "Changes In Legal Practice And The Use Of ADR" by Richard Webb at his Healthcare Neutral ADR. Excerpts:

Since entering the ADR field, I have wondered about the inherent conflict between the interests of the lawyer engaged on an hourly fee basis and the interests of the client in achieving the most economically efficient result.

Most lawyers operating in the traditional legal model are like most doctors practicing in a traditional, healthcare setting with fully insured patients. When a patient presents with a complaint, the doctor deploys whatever resources are at his or her disposal to diagnose and cure the problem.

Whether it is consultations with specialists, diagnostic tests and procedures, medications, surgeries or other therapies, the limits of modern medicine are the only constraint. For lawyers, depositions are like CAT Scans. It seems you can never be faulted for doing one too many.

Full post as published by What About Clients? on March 04, 2010 (boomark / email).