Traditional and Nontraditional Litigation

Traditional and Nontraditional Litigation – Option 1

La’Kisha Thomas

LAW/531

April 8, 2013

Judy Gray

Traditional and Nontraditional Litigation – Option 1

Traditional litigation has several processes within a process after a lawsuit has been filed, called litigation. The litigation process begins with the pretrial litigation process. Pretrial litigation has several stages in the process. First all parties must enter a plea in the pleadings process. This process takes place in response to the parties involved receiving a summons from the court. The next phase is the discovery phase. This is where the parties in the case will be given the opportunity to discover facts of the case from one another and any witnesses that may be presented.

The first two phases of the process can lead to a dismissal or pretrial judgment, the next step the litigation process. The parties involved have the legal right to request pretrial motions, motion for judgment on the pleadings and motion for summary judgment. The motion for judgment on the pleadings can be requested by either party in the lawsuit and simply relies on the judge to consider the facts in the pleadings to render judgment. A motion for summary judgment can also be made by wither party and basically states that there is no facts that need to be decided by a jury and they would like the judge to render the judgment in the case. Each party takes the risk that the judge will feel that there are facts in the case that should be heard and decided by a jury and hold the case over for trial.

When dealing with traditional litigation business and organizations risk being tied up in court for years, costly court and attorney fees, and legal proceeds can often interrupt daily business activity which affects profits for organization.

To avoid these risks and find quick resolutions to their legal issues, businesses are utilizing alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes. Traditional litigation takes place after a...