Case 1

Imagine that you are a tent manufacturer. Your supplier of tent fabric
routinely supplies you with appropriate water-resistant fabric to construct
your tents, so that you can produce your products and bring them to market.
After many years of a good working relationship, your fabric supplier
delivered nonconforming goods. Specifically, the fabric delivered was not
water-resistant, despite your need for water-resistant fabric to produce your
tents. However, on your notifying the supplier of the problem, the supplier
denied that the fabric was nonconforming to your order. You refused to pay
for the goods. The fabric supplier insisted on payment before future delivery
of any additional fabric. Without water-resistant fabric, you cannot continue
to produce your tents.
How you will proceed to resolve this dispute? What benefits will you get from
your litigation method? What are your considerations in selecting a particular
method of litigation?

Imagine that after negotiating with your fabric supplier, the following facts
emerged: The fabric supplier believed that it sent the correct fabric to you,
because one of your new employees inadvertently ordered the wrong fabric.
You reviewed your business records and determined that this allegation was
true.
With the changing situation do you still believe that your decision was right?
Or there were some other options by which you could easily escape the
embarrassment and hard feelings that have been caused from your decision?
KE
Case 2
You work for a lawyer in Fayetteville who has a general practice. The lawyer
asks for your help in dealing with a lawsuit recently filed against a business
client, Kilpatrick's Engineering Systems (KES). The plaintiff is Schultz Beer

Co., a micro-brewery begun by a new resident who retired to the area from
Milwaukee.
Schultz claims a breach of contract by KES, which supplied Schultz with a
water filtration system. The system did not work as anticipated because of
the presence in the water of small pieces of debris, such as bottle caps.
Schultz claims that KES representatives were aware of the condition of the
water, and KES says they were not. Without getting into technicalities, the
lawyer explains that the case involves difficult factual issues as well as legal
issues on which the law is not clear. She says that she cannot get a good
idea of the litigation risks to KES until there is further investigation and
discovery.
Schultz claims that it suffered losses exceeding $50,000 as a result of the
breach, and is asking for that amount in its complaint.
KES has been in business in Fayetteville for more than 20 years. This is the
fifth complaint it has received about one of its systems in the past five years.
(The other complaints were resolved without formal suit or an attorney's
involvement, but Kilpatrick and Schultz wound up in a shouting match when
they tried to discuss the problems with the filtration system.) KES believes
that it did nothing wrong and does not want to be seen as a "soft touch" by
either Schultz or the community. On the other hand, it is concerned about its
reputation.
The plaintiff's lawyer has written to your boss and proposed the use of
binding arbitration. Since your boss knows you took an ADR course in law
school, she asks you to write a memorandum covering the nature and
advantages and disadvantages of various ADR procedures in the context of
this case.
Please prepare the memorandum, discussing (a) binding arbitration, (b)
mediation, and (c) court-annexed, non- binding, arbitration (recently adopted

in the state courts pursuant to the work of the ADR Commission and
applicable to cases alleging damages of less than $100,000). In addition to
describing the pros and cons of these mechanisms, please list other
information you believe would be needed from the client to fully respond to
the partner's request.
You need not follow any special memorandum format, but be sure to
organize your answer in parts (a), (b), and (c)in accordance with the format
of the question.

Case 3
A partner in your law firm has come to you for advice involving her
representation of a 32-year old professional basketball player injured in a
serious automobile accident where he tore his Achilles heel. There is a good
chance that he will never be able to play professional basketball again, and
his rehabilitation will take many months. At the time of this accident, the
player was making Taka5,000,000.00 a year and would be a free agent at the
end of the season where he might be able to command taka10,000,000.00 a
year. Although the player was a passenger at the time of the accident, he
had given the driver some marijuana, and they were both smoking it at the
time of the accident. Fortunately, no arrests were made, and the player
thinks no one knew about the marijuana. The player is looking for
taka500,000 for medical expenses, taka100,000,000 in lost future earnings,
and taka20,000,000 for pain and suffering. The partner tells you that the
liability is reasonably certain since the player was a passenger, but there is a
question about damages because the player had an earlier Achilles heel
injury in college that had been repaired. There is also the question of
contributory negligence since the player had supplied the marijuana to the
driver.

Although there has been some discovery, the defendant has not yet learned
of the marijuana use, but the partner thinks it is only a matter of time that
the defendant will discover this.
Although the trial is not scheduled to start for at least six months, the
partner fears that the defendant is on the verge of discovering the marijuana
use and that his will substantially diminish the recovery. The partner tells you
that the defendant's lawyer called today and proposed submitting the case
to some form of alternative dispute resolution. The partner tells you that she
does not know much about ADR. She asks you do some research and prepare
and fax a memorandum to her that will help her decide how to respond to
the defense lawyer's proposal. Specifically she asks you to deal with the
following questions:
What 3 ADR methods would you recommend, pointing out the advantages
and disadvantages of each method?
Which method would you recommend trying first stating the reasons for that
recommendation?