A1 ternat ives to the High Cost of Litigation

Center for Public Resources (CPR) New York, New York Vol. 4 No. 9 September 1986

Contents Promise of Preventive Law ABA Survey Shows Mini-Trial A Highly Effective Technique Rule 68: The Role of ADR Anchor Hocking Settles Case By Using CPR Pledge as Spur State and Local Bar Groups Evince Growing Interest in ADR ADR Center Started at Rutgers University From the Journals Ninth Circuit Issues Preemption Ruling in Stockbroker Dispute Briefs:

Settlement Week Works Rehnquist and ADR Rand Tort Report Auto ADR

Letters

Quotation of the Month Drawing by Twohy CPC International Inch Blind Bid ADR Procedure Events of Note SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT: Preventive Law in the Corporation

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Promise of Preventive Law “It is unlikely that many people go to an attorney merely to ascertain ifthey have a clean bill of health .”

That assessment, offered by Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun in 1977, may no longer be wholly true. More and more, lawyers and their clients are per- forming legal audits, designing policies to monitor legal compliance and legal exposure, and adopting all those other prudent legal procedures now labeled preventive law.

Legal scholars and lawyers are now proferring preventive law solutions to particular types of disputes as well. In a recent libel study, for instance, three University of Iowa professors suggested that the media can forestall libel suits by installing sensitive procedures for handling the public’s complaints. And a prominent New York lawyer predicts a downturn in malpractice suits if doctors

involve patients more fully in medical decisions.

Institutions are focusing on this field too. A few months ago, the National Center for Preventive Law was estab- lished at the University of Denver Col- lege of Law. Bar groups have promoted preventive law as well, as has the Amer- ican Corporate Counsel Association (ACCA).

Moreover, preventive law is very val- uable for corporate general counsel, given the large and varied caseloads, scores of lawyers, and often thousands of corporate employee-clients they must supervise.

Consequently, Alternatives presents in this issue a wide- ranging discussion of preventive law by John Sciamanda, vice president for legal affairs for Con- trol Data Corporation and chairman of ACCA’s board of directors. Future is- sues will focus on particular preventive practices.

ABA Survev Shows Mini-Trial A‘H~ghly Effective’ Technicpe A mini-trial survey by a subcommittee of the American Bar Association has concluded that the ADR procedure is a markedly effective and increasingly used alternative dispute resolution technique for a broad range of business cases.

The July 1 report, titled “The Effec- tiveness of the Mini-Trial in Resolving Complex Commercial Disputes: ’4 Sur- vey,” was issued by the Subcommittee on Alternate Means of Dispute Resolu- tion of the Committee on Corporate Counsel of the ABA’s Section of Litiga-

tion. The survey report has been sent to all subcommittee members and will be distributed at the ABA’s annual meet- ing in New York in August. Subcommit- tee members and some non-member lawyers researched and drafted the re- port; the subcommittee co-chairmen are Michael J. Basford and James W. Quinn.

The report is based on interviews with 19 lawyers and one former judge involved in 28 actual or proposed mini- trials, which are non-binding, informal (continued on page 14)