ARBITRATION Recent Development: Supreme Court affirms employer’s right to require mandatory arbitration of employment disputes. Background In an attempt to decrease litigation expenses and reduce exposure to uncertain jury awards, an increasing number of employers are now including arbitration clauses in their job applications, employee handbooks and employee contracts. By agreeing to arbitrate instead of litigate, employees give up their rights to have their claims heard by a jury in a court of law. Arbitration provisions can be an effective, efficient and economical way of disposing of employment disputes. However, such agreements are not without their faults. Why arbitrate? Studies… Read more

TRADITIONAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION THROUGH LITIGATION The American litigation process is significantly different from systems in other industrialized nations. A general understanding of these differences may impact whether one wishes to expose himself to this process by investing in the U.S. Generally, nearly any breach of a right or duty will be actionable if it results in damage to the party maintaining the action. What rights or duties exist and may therefore be breached is a question of substantive law and is addressed elsewhere in this pamphlet. U.S. Court Systems There are two different and separate principal court systems in the… Read more

In Georgia, the State Bar’s Ethical Consideration 7-5 says: “An attorney as adviser has a duty to advise the client as to various forms of dispute resolution. When a matter is likely to involve litigation, an attorney has a duty to inform the client of forms of dispute resolution which might constitute reasonable alternatives to litigation.” Over the last two decades, there has been great interest in finding ways to resolve disputes other than through the traditional court system. Some of the dispute resolution techniques that companies have turned to are fairly new, while others have been used for many… Read more