Comprehensive Adjudication: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know that Comprehensive Adjudication will cost only half the amount it would cost to obtain a judgment through the public courts?
Intelligent Justice encourages you to calculate the likely cost of obtaining a verdict through the public court system. Ask an experienced litigation attorney to provide you with the maximum dollar amount the attorney’s law firm will charge you for each task required to obtain a verdict through the public court system. If the attorney is realistic in performing this cost analysis, then most Adjudicators will agree now to charge each party a maximum of half the litigation cost estimated by your attorney. This is possible because the parties split the cost of retaining an Adjudicator and legal staff to perform all of the factual investigation and legal analysis before deciding the dispute instead of each party retaining separate counsel to perform duplicative work.
How is an Adjudicator able to complete the adjudication process and provide a just result in half the time it takes to obtain a judgment in the public court system?
Traditional litigation requires counsel for each party to separately review the evidence and become educated about all of the relevant facts and applicable law. That same education process must occur again for the judge when dispositive motions are heard and again for a jury when the trial commences. When expert testimony is required in a public court trial, each party retains separate witnesses with the same expertise who must be separately prepared for trial. Comprehensive Adjudication eliminates all of that duplicative effort. Instead of waiting years for a trial to begin, the adjudication will commence immediately with the review of relevant evidence and the examination of material witnesses under oath. Moreover, while most of the effort required for traditional litigation focuses on procedural battles, discovery disputes, motions to the court and other side issues, an adjudication focuses exclusively on the substance of the dispute.
How does an Adjudicator gather all of the relevant evidence?
The parties will sign a written agreement promising to voluntarily provide the Adjudicator with all requested information and written evidence in their possession or within their control. The Adjudicator will have access to any of the parties’ employees who can assist the Adjudicator in locating helpful information as well as all of the legal tools for the discovery of relevant evidence that are available under the provisions of the Federal Arbitration Act and similar state statutes. Whenever necessary, subpoenas can be employed to obtain written evidence and sworn witness testimony.
What happens if a party or witness refuses to provide the Adjudicator with relevant evidence?
If a party refuses to provide the Adjudicator with requested information the Adjudicator may infer that the requested evidence was adverse to the interests of the uncooperative party and may use those adverse inferences to support the ultimate verdict in the case. Each party has a strong incentive to provide all relevant evidence to avoid inferences drawn from a refusal to provide requested information that could possibly be more harmful to its interests than the actual evidence.
How does the Adjudicator’s decision get converted into an enforceable court judgment?
The Adjudicator’s verdict may be confirmed as an enforceable court judgment through a simple procedure authorized by federal or state arbitration statutes.
How will my adversary perceive my desire to resolve our dispute through Comprehensive Adjudication instead of the public court system?
Because a Comprehensive Adjudication is designed to resolve disputes more justly and expeditiously, a desire to employ that procedure demonstrates your confidence in the merits of your legal position. Conversely, a refusal to accept a request to resolve the dispute through a Comprehensive Adjudication demonstrates a need to exploit the weaknesses of the public court system for purposes of delay and demonstrates a lack of confidence in the merits of the refusing party’s legal position.
How is the confidential information of a party protected?
Any information revealed to the Adjudicator that is found by the Adjudicator to qualify as a trade secret will not be revealed to the opposing party unless it is necessary to support the Adjudicator’s verdict. Under those circumstances the parties will be obligated to agree to procedures designed to ensure that confidential information will be protected from improper use or disclosure in the same manner that is employed in the public court system.
How does Comprehensive Adjudication protect the parties’ attorney/client privilege in a cost-effective manner?
In the public court system parties must incur a considerable expense to have their lawyers find, within the mass of evidence to be disclosed to the opposing party in pretrial discovery, any documents that are protected from disclosure by the attorney/client privilege. The Comprehensive Adjudication system eliminates the huge cost of those pre-disclosure “privilege reviews” because all of the requested documents are provided to the Adjudicator without the need for any such review. The Adjudicator only selects the relevant, non-privileged documents to be used as evidence in the case, which automatically prevents any disclosure of privileged communications to the opposing party.
Can the parties’ dispute be settled after an adjudication is commenced?
The parties are free to settle their dispute at any time. Once a settlement occurs the parties’ obligations to make future payments to the Adjudicator is ended.
Can the adjudication be terminated after it is commenced?
An adjudication can be terminated only upon:
- the mutual agreement of all parties
- a settlement of the dispute
- a default in payment to the Adjudicator that is not cured by the defaulting party or another party within 30 days of notice of default.
What happens if one of the parties stops paying its share of the fees due to the Adjudicator?
Adjudication work will be suspended during any period that the Adjudicator has not been paid in full for any charges then due and owing under the terms of the parties’ Adjudication Agreement. However, any party that is paid in full will have the option to restart the Adjudication process by paying the charges owed by the defaulting party. Under those circumstances the Adjudicator’s verdict will require the defaulting party to repay any charges that were advanced by another party regardless of who may ultimately prevail in the dispute. That repayment obligation can be confirmed as part of an enforceable judgment through a simple procedure authorized by federal or state arbitration statutes.