Fred Weinstein- Lawyers who specialize in complex commercial litigation are closely watching a pilot program that will begin July 28 with the assignment of one out of five cases to mandatory mediation in New York County’s Commercial Division of the New York Supreme Court. My hope is that if successful, the pilot – designed to ease the court’s crushing backlog – will also make mediation a more acceptable tool to resolve disputes and spare clients from the financial and emotional drain that plagues complex commercial litigation today.

...The irony is that there’s a good chance the parties will enter into a settlement anyway. More than 90 percent of business disputes end in a settlement, according to a report by the Chief Judge’s Task Force on Commercial Litigation in the 21st Century.

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