Mediation as Anti-Social Behavior, II

I first posted on this subject last year (See "Mediation as Anti-Social Behavior," May 16, 2008) following a post by Geoff Sharp, in which he discussed Prof. Owen Fiss’s 1984 article, Against Settlement, 93 Yale L.J. 1073. Others have continued the discussion, which centers on whether justice is ill-served by people who settle their legal disputes without considering whether society as a whole would be better off if they fought things out in the courts. See, e.g., Michael L. Moffitt’s article, "Three Things to Be Against (‘Settlement’ Not Included) - A Response to Owen Fiss,"

In my earlier post, I deliberately put off discussing "whether individual litigants should be asked to spend their own money to carry society’s banners into battle (presumably for the honor of the thing)." This aspect of the issue appears to have been given little attention by those participating in the debate, but I believe it to be the nub of the matter. The idea that people who have a chance to quickly and efficiently resolve their grievances by settlement should nonetheless be encouraged to forgo that option for a protracted and expensive court battle seems foreign to any concept of justice with which I am familiar. To me, it is basic that the litigants’ interests are paramount, and if society wants a different benefit, society should bear the burden of getting it.

To help clarify the issue as I see it, let’s return to the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, a case that is often cited to suggest that settlement would not always be the ideal. To some, the proper question apparently is: "Would the country have been better off if the Browns and Topeka’s Board of Education had settled?" Perhaps not. But to me, as a practicing attorney and mediator, the proper question is: "Would the Browns and the Board and all the other litigants in the cases consolidated in Brown by the Supreme Court — the clients, i.e. — have been better off?" Would Linda Brown have been better off if, instead of litigating, her family had been able to resolve matters early on with the Topeka Board of Education?

This is not to suggest that litigants should be discouraged from fighting for a principle if they want to, and are able to garner the necessary support for their battle. I have never felt that litigants should be forced or coerced into settlement negotiations of any kind. See, e.g., my post of May 17, 2008, "Should Mediation be Mandatory?" There is certainly nothing wrong with individuals or groups choosing to fight passionately for a worthy cause. We need to remember, though, that while the creation of omelets may benefit society, the eggs are seldom better off afterward.

It is beyond the scope of this blog to do complete justice to this topic, but I think it would be beneficial if we started focusing at least some of the debate on it.