Traditional and Nontraditional Law

Traditional and Nontraditional Litigation

LAW/531

Traditional and Nontraditional Litigation

In past years the traditional litigation path was the route that many businesses took. Businesses dealing with disputes today can settle these by using traditional or nontraditional litigation. In traditional disputes there is a lengthy court process, but with a nontraditional dispute there are several avenues that a business can take. This paper will discuss the two approaches.

Traditional Litigation

“Traditional litigation system refers to the resolution of disputes by utilizing the civil court system” (Barron, 201, par 1). This is the route that businesses take when things cannot be settled without the help of a third party. It begins in the court when a business files a complaint against another business. The legal process if off and running from this point which will have a lengthy legal bill attached to it. The traditional litigation process consists of a pretrial, trial, and appeals.

Pre-Trial

Once everything is in place and the legal process is ready to begin it starts with a pre-trial process. The pretrial litigation process has four phases: pleadings, discovery, dismissals, and pretrial judgments, and settlement conference" (Cheeseman, 2010, p. 35). Each phase is needed before the actual trial can begin. Anything that is done during this phase can affect the outcome of the complaint that was filed. During the pre-trial process the case can be dismissed or settled amongst the defendant and the plaintiff. “More than 95 percent of all cases settle before they even go to trial” (Cheeseman, 2010, p. 41). This route can save the business from the expense of a lengthy trial.

Trial

“Trials can last less than one day to many months, depending on the type and complexity of the case, and have many stages they are divided into” (Cheeseman, 2010, p. 41). The route can be quite costly and could leave a business in financial ruins once it is over. Also...