Traditional and Nontraditional Litigation

Traditional and Nontraditional Litigation

In the Litigation and Alternatives video, Quick Takes Video is being sued by Non-Linear Pro for defaulting on lease payments. Quick Takes Video did a three week trail of Non-Linear Pro’s software. The software did not work like Quick Takes Video wanted and sent the software back before the trail was up. Non-Linear Pro states Quick Takes Video signed a three month lease. According to Quick Takes Video, they thought they were signing a delivery receipt. (Cheeseman, Video) What are the traditional and nontraditional litigation options of both companies?

Traditional Litigation

Traditional litigation is the bringing, maintaining, and defense of a lawsuit. There are three sections to the traditional litigation: the pretrial, trial, and appeal. Each one is broken down into different categories. The pretrial is divided into pleadings, discovery, dismissals and pretrial judgments, and settlement conference. (Cheeseman, p 35) The trial is divided into jury selection, opening statements, the plaintiff’s case, the defendant’s case, rebuttal and rejoinder, closing arguments, jury instructions, jury deliberation and verdict, and entry of judgment. (Cheeseman, p 41-41) The appeal is not broken down into categories. It is a process on its own. Because of these different sections and categories, traditional litigation takes a long time. Are there any alternatives to this lengthy process?

Nontraditional Litigation

Nontraditional litigation or alternative dispute resolution (ADR) are methods of resolving disputes without using the traditional litigation process. The forms of ADR are arbitration, negotiation, mediation, conciliation, mini-trial, fact-finding, and judicial referee. (Cheeseman, p 43) Arbitration, mediation, mini-trial are the ADR forms to be looked at in the Quick Takes Video vs Non-linear Pro case.

If both parties do not want to keep a relationship of any kind, then arbitration will probably be the best choice....