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Business Essay – Dispute Resolutions Methods

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Introduction

Dispute resolutions methods help create a conducive working environment that will

enable the work team to be more productive. Learning the skills and practice of handling

workplace conflicts is essential to maintaining a healthy working condition. Conflicts may be

sourced from the varying values, beliefs, personalities, or resources of working together.

However, having the capacity to handle and deal with these conflicts in a just way would help

restore the relations and enable business continuity. This essay seeks to discuss the several

methods of solving disputes, including litigation, arbitration/mediation, and business re-

negotiation settlement, as well as their associated pros and cons.

Mediation

Mediation is a method of solving disputes whereby the parties involved join together and

agree to solve their differences confidentially and in a conducive atmosphere free from

compromise. In the mediation process, the business parties involved in the conflict can choose a

neutral third party to help them navigate through the conflict. The mediation method produces

fair outcomes for both parties by shifting the opponents from the opposing side into a non-

adversarial setting and helping them understand the dispute from both perspectives (Menkel-

Meadow, 2015). Mediation allows the parties to conclude the issue at hand and still maintain

their commercial associations in the future after solving the dispute. In most cases, mediation is

similar to seeking partnership counseling for businesses by handling their problems immediately

before the situation worsens. This method of solving conflicts is generally cheap and saves the

companies from the potential costs of engaging in civil litigation.

Pros of Mediation Method

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i. The benefit of opting for mediation in conflict resolution is that it's less costly and more

economical than other methods such as litigation and arbitration since it does not require

expensive lawyers in the case.

ii. The mediation method is less formal, requiring few preliminary legal requirements,

unlike litigation which needs detailed and more discovery tasks before resolving the

conflict.

iii. Mediation is an informal method of problem-solving that conserves the individual or

commercial relations for the parties involved in the business dispute (Menkel-Meadow,

2015). The neutral third party engages the persons to not attack or hurt each other in

solving the conflict.

iv. Further, mediation is non-binding, releasing the parties from being legally bound to the

agreement or compromise arrived at in the conflict resolution process.

Cons of Mediation Method

i. The mediation process requires cooperation and coordination from the parties involved,

which may hard to establish. The method relies on both parties coming to a consensus

about specific terms, which may not always be the case.

ii. The fact that the mediator involved in this method is always a neutral third party may not

have access to adequate information to solve the dispute compared to engaging a lawyer

who has vast knowledge about the issue (Menkel-Meadow, 2015).

iii. The mediation process involves the risk of the parties not ending in an agreed-upon

decision. The parties may spend a substantial amount of the time in the negotiation

process and take the issue to a higher level involving a law court.
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iv. Another drawback of this method is the freedom of either party withdrawing. The

mediation conflict resolution process is voluntary, and any aggrieved party has the right

to withdraw and take the matter to court.

Litigation

The litigation method entails going through the judicial process to solve a conflict

between the parties. This is the most commonly used method of solving disputes by seeking a

lawsuit in a court of law. For businesses and other ventures conflict resolution method often

takes the form of commercial litigation. This method engages zero-sum litigation where one

party wins, and the other loses in the case conflict. Commercial litigation involves the defendant

suing the plaintiff before a judge (Blake, Browne, & Sime, 2016). The judge involved is required

to weigh the case, and evidence presented by both parties and make a ruling concerning the issue

at hand. Lawyers dominate civil litigation, and the dispute ends in a settlement arrived upon

during the time of trials and discovery.

Pros of Litigation Method

i. Due to the nature of civil litigation ruling, parties are forced to comply with the judicial

settlement failure, to which the party will be penalized by the court. The losing party in

the litigation process is compelled to abide by the settlement judgment passed to avoid

other fines like jailing, seizure of property, or loss of money owed.

ii. An advantage of the litigation method is that it allows either party to request the court to

review the trial ruling if one of the parties is not satisfied with the verdict (Blake,

Browne, & Sime, 2016). The right to appeal gives a chance for a previous decision to be

changed or a new trial to be scheduled, favoring the aggrieved party.

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iii. Further, the litigation method allows the parties to gather information and records

concerning the involved issue through the discovery and preparation process.

iv. Another pro is the probability of a predictable court settlement. One party may be able to

predict the expected judgment of the issue from a precedent case setting.

Cons of Litigation Method

i. The litigation method is costly with the legal fees and other trial costs spent resolving the

dispute.

ii. One of the shortcomings of taking the case to judicial process is that it will damage the

business relations between the parties involved, which may have a downside effect on

their businesses.

iii. Further, the civil litigation process is time-consuming, taking up to years which can vary

depending on the complexity of the issue at hand to be ruled by the court (Blake, Browne,

& Sime, 2016).

iv. In the litigation method, there is the risk of repeating the whole process repeatedly in case

the appellate court overturns the matter after reviewing.

Business Re-negotiation

Business re-negotiation is an informal dispute settlement method where the parties agree

to engage in a confidential process to reach a consensus on their own (Wang & Chen, 2019).

Pros

i. Business re-negotiation is the fastest and time-saving method of solving a conflict

between parties.

ii. The re-negotiation method is focused on confidentiality between the parties as no

information on the conflict will be leaked to third parties.

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iii. Business re-negotiation will preserve the business relations of the parties involved even

after finding a solution to the conflict.

iv. The method is less costly as it does not involve expensive legal processes.

Cons

i. Business re-negotiations, the side with the most leverage, will always win the settlement.

ii. Re-negotiations may fail to work if one of the parties withdraws due to dissatisfaction.

iii. It may be challenging to make the parties come to a consensus about the issue.

iv. The process may be time-consuming if the parties start postponing the meetings.

Conclusion

Having the capacity to handle and deal with business conflicts in a just way would help

restore the relations and enable business continuity. The litigation method is the best option for

the case involving AeroOne. This is because the parties involved do not agree to come to terms

and settle the matter independently. AeroOne is dissatisfied with the settlement suggested by

Avion, which may lead him to seek a court ruling even if they opt for re-negotiation in the

beginning. Further, the litigation method will allow AeroOne to gather more information and

records from Avion concerning the involved transaction issue through the discovery and

preparation process and identify the root cause of the problem. The judge involved in the dispute

will have to weigh the case, and evidence presented by both parties and make a ruling

concerning the issue at hand, requiring the parties to comply with the judicial verdict.
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References

Blake, S. H., Browne, J., & Sime, S. (2016). A practical approach to alternative dispute

resolution. Oxford University Press.

Menkel-Meadow, C. (2015). Mediation, arbitration, and alternative dispute resolution

(ADR). International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Elsevier Ltd.

Wang, Z. J., & Chen, J. (2019). Dispute Resolution in the People’s Republic of China: The

Evolving Institutions and Mechanisms. Brill.