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Top Criteria for Litigant Selection of Dispute Resolution Process

Jennifer Shack, September 28th, 2018

When litigants were asked soon after their case was filed what would influence their decision about what dispute resolution method they would use for their case, they most commonly said they would be relying on their lawyer’s advice, according to research conducted by Donna Shestowsky. As Shestowsky notes in her article, “Inside the mind of the client: An analysis of litigants’ decision criteria for choosing procedures” (Conflict Resolution Quarterly, Fall 2018) [sub. req.], this has important implications for lawyers and litigants, as lawyers don’t always understand their clients’ interests.

This is the fourth in a series of articles presenting different aspects of her research into the decision-making of litigants in civil cases. Previous articles reported that litigants prefer mediation, looked at what they wanted from a dispute resolution process, and discussed their lack of awareness of what options were available to them. The research is based surveys of litigants in three jurisdictions (in California, Oregon and Utah), that had mediation and arbitration options available to the surveyed litigants.

For this aspect of the research, 335 litigants completed surveys soon after their case was filed. Among the questions were those inquiring into how they would decide which dispute resolution process to use. Within three weeks of the closing of the case, they were called to conduct a survey about the processes they used and the reasons they used them. The litigants provided numerous factors influencing their process selection at the outset of the case, with their lawyer’s advice being the most common, cited by 25% of the respondents. The second most common response, given by 19% of litigants, was that they wanted to minimize economic costs. These two reasons held steady when the litigants were surveyed after the case closed. That is, those litigants who said their lawyer’s advice and/or economic costs were what would lead them to choose a particular dispute resolution process said that they were the factors that led them to ultimately select a process.

Shestowsky finds the significance of litigants relying on their lawyer’s advice in previous research. Tara Relis had earlier found that lawyers don’t always understand their clients’ interests. Similarly, Russell Korobkin and Chris Guthrie uncovered differences between how lawyers and non-lawyers assess whether to settle or litigate a case. This, for Shestowsky, means that unless the lawyers uncover their interests before advising their clients, they may not be acting in a way that best suits their clients when promoting one dispute resolution process over another. Another study also proves relevant in this context. In Arizona, Roselle Wissler found that lawyers were more likely to recommend mediation to their clients if they themselves had experience with the process. Thus, lawyers may simply not feel comfortable recommending a process that may fit best with what their clients want.

Given that litigants rely on their lawyer’s advice, Shestowsky recommends that lawyers “should attempt to understand their clients’ interests, values, and objectives before sharing their personal evaluations of procedures to avoid imposing their own views.” And when their values differ from those of their clients, they should defer to their clients’ values.

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