5.Advantages of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
There are some potential advantages of using ADR. Such as:
1. Save Time: A dispute often can be settled or decided much sooner with ADR; often in a matter of months, even weeks, while bringing a lawsuit to trial can take a year or more.
2. Save Money: When cases are resolved earlier through ADR, the parties may save some of the money they would have spent on attorney fees, court costs, and experts’ fees.’
3. Increase Control over the Process and the Outcome: In ADR, parties typically play a greater role in shaping both the process and its outcome. In most ADR processes, parties have more opportunity to tell their side of the story than they do at trial.
4. Preserve Relationships: ADR can be a less adversarial and hostile way to resolve a dispute.
5. Increase Satisfaction: In a trial, there is typically a winner and a loser. The loser is not likely to be happy, and even the winner may not be completely satisfied with the outcome.
6. Improve Attorney-Client Relationships: Attorneys may also benefit from ADR by being seen as problem-solvers rather than combatants.
## .Disadvantages of ADR
Generally ADR are usually faster, and cheaper than litigation they are also private and informal when also compared to litigation and it gets both parties involved in the settlement process and the decisions are not necessarily final. However ADR does not alway guarantee an agreed upon decision and with arbitration the decision is final. The problems of ADR are given below:
1. Unequal Bargaining Power – In certain situations one side is able to dominate the other, for example, employment and divorce cases, making the courts a better option for a weak party.
2. Lack of Legal Expertise – Where a dispute involves”-difficult legal points a mediator or arbitrator is unlikely to have the same legal expertise and knowledge as a judge.
3. No System of Precedent – It isn’t easy to predict the outcome of a dispute decided through ADR as there is no system of precedent.
4. Enforceability – Most •forms of ADR are not legally binding, making any award difficult to enforce.
5. A Court action may still be required – If using ADR fails to resolve the parties’ dispute, court action may Still be needed.
6. No guaranteed resolution- There is no guaranteed resolution. With the exception of arbitration, alternative dispute resolution processes do not always lead to a resolution.