Nontraditional and Traditional Litigation

Nontraditional and Traditional Litigation

Business risks that organizations may face when dealing with traditional litigation can vary from liability to employees, contract disputes, intellectual property, recovering entitled funds, and product liability (National Arbitration Forum, 2005). Organizations can incur substantial fees from potential liability to include attorneys, consultants, and others hired to provide legal assistance. Besides the substantial monetary loss, organizations may suffer from reputational damage, loss of market share, decreased stock pricing, and loss of investor confidence. However, in certain cases, alternative dispute resolutions (ADR) can be used by organizations to bypass traditional litigation systems.

Traditional Litigation

Traditional litigation systems have developed a formal process to protect basic liability, property interests, to provide realistic opportunities to secure compensation for injury, and enforce important substantive norms utilizing the civil court system (American Judicature Society, 2008). The traditional litigation system includes the commencing a court action, which the plaintiff files a complaint and defendant files an answer to the complaint; pre-trial procedures, conduct discovery procedures under court supervision; and trial, where the plaintiff and defendant must prove their case by submitting a preponderance of evidence then judgment by a judge or jury.

Appropriate Uses of Traditional Litigation

The appropriate uses of traditional litigation can be determined by the amount of disputed entitlement, product liability affecting numerous users, corporate-wide fraud and abuse, environmental destruction, and public accountability of widespread public neglect. For example, the product liability lawsuit involving the pharmaceutical drug Vioxx was found to cause increased risks of heart attack and strokes leading to numerous deaths. The maker of Vioxx, Merck & Co., Inc., spent an estimated $244 million in 2009 and $140 million in 2010 in legal defense worldwide.