SvsG Proposed Ground Rules

Plaintiffs' proposed ground rules for written negotiation between litigants in Staddon vs. Griever.

Notes

• Where something is said to be "stated", it is to be understood that this means "written down as part of the document currently being described".
• Where no response is received within the stated time, it will be assumed that the non-responding party disagrees with all statements or changes made by the document not responded to, and it will be assumed that the non-responding party does not wish to amend or alter their most recent response in any way. If a non-responding party have not yet made any responses within the Ground Rules, then their lack of response shall be construed as disagreement with all points in the submitted document, with no alterations suggested, and the negotiations shall revert to the condition they were in before acceptance of these Ground Rules (which was, as of this writing, Mediation as ordered by the Court).
• All communication shall pass from each party to their respective attorney, who will relay it to the opposing attorney, who will in turn relay it to her/his client.
• It shall be understood that each party must notify their attorney of the date of receipt of each document within 2 business days of said receipt, via whatever method they prefer, and that said attorney must notify the opposing attorney of same within 2 business days, and that the opposing attorney will in turn notify her/his client of same within 2 business days. (This process should lead to a delay of no more than 6 business days, or 10 calendar days, between the receipt of a document by one party and the other party's notification of said receipt.)

Overview

• Phase I: Plaintiff sends initial proposal of facts, and Defendants respond
• Phase II: Plaintiff responds to Defendants' responses
• Phase III: Litigants work out a clear statement of their respective positions
• Phase IV: Litigants now have a list of clear disagreements, so they now provide documentation towards each point
• Phase V: Litigants review each other's evidence lists, ask for physical or detailed copies if needed, and decide whether to adjust their positions (back to Phase II), ask for more evidence (stay in Phase V), or maintain their positions (move on to Phase VI-B).
• Phase VI-A: Plaintiff and Defendants were able to reach an agreement on all points. Plaintiff and Defendants decide whether to mutually agree to a settlement or instead to enter into Binding Arbitration to determine a fair settlement.
• Phase VI-B: Plaintiff and Defendants have each presented the other with documents to argue their side, but differences still remain; Plaintiff and Defendants enter into Binding Arbitration for a determination of facts and a fair settlement in light of the determined facts.

The Ground Rules

Phase I

1. Plaintiff will prepare an Initial Statement giving:
   • A set of facts which Plaintiff believes to be true
   • A set of conclusions which Plaintiff believes would follow logically if the given facts were true
2. Plaintiff will submit said document to Defendants no later than 7 (seven) calendar days after ground rules are agreed upon.

Phase II

Defendants will respond to said document within 14 (fourteen) calendar days, indicating:

• Their agreement or disagreement with each stated fact
• Any additional facts which they believe to be relevant but which were not included in the Plaintiff's document
• Their agreement or disagreement with the reasoning of each conclusion (i.e. is the conclusion a reasonable one to draw if the facts were correct?)
• Their agreement or disagreement with the factuality of each conclusion (i.e. regardless of the soundness of the reasoning, is the conclusion true?)
• The nature or substance of each disagreement, i.e. a detailing of what, specifically, is incorrect about the statement as written, and how it should be rewritten in order to be true. These particular responses shall be known as "Suggested Changes".

Phase III

1. Within 14 (fourteen) calendar days of receiving Defendants' response, Plaintiff will prepare a Revised Statement document which shall state, for each Suggested Change made by the Defendants, whether the Plaintiff believes the Suggested Change is incorrect, is unclear, or is correct.
   • For each Suggested Change marked "unclear", the Plaintiff will suggest a re-wording with which the Plaintiff agrees.
   • Plaintiff may state any additional facts which may help to clarify Plaintiff's point of view.
2. If Plaintiff marks all Suggested Changes as "correct", negotiation moves directly to Phase VI-A.
3. If Plaintiff marks any Suggested Changes as "unclear" or states any additional facts, negotiation returns to Phase II, with the Plaintiff's Revised Statement being given to the Defendants in the same manner as the Plaintiff's Initial Statement.
4. If Plaintiff marks all Suggested Changes as either "correct" or "incorrect", with no Suggested Changes being marked as "unclear" and no additional facts stated, the Revised Statement becomes a Dispute Statement and negotiation moves directly to Phase IV.

Phase IV

• Note: There should be only "correct" and "incorrect" items remaining on the Revised Statement at this point.

1. Within 14 (fourteen) calendar days of the Defendants' receipt of the Dispute Statement, Plaintiff and Defendants will each prepare an Evidence List Document (i.e. one such document from the Plaintiff and one from the Defendants) and present said Evidence List Document to the other party.
2. Each Evidence List Document will name and describe, for each Suggested Change which the Plaintiff has marked "incorrect":
   • Any item of physical evidence supporting the authoring party's point of view
   • Any communications records supporting the authoring party's point of view, including the date, time, and medium (email, letter, phone call, etc.) of such email, as well as the essential substance of the record indicating how it supports the authoring party's point

Phase V

• Note: There are still only "incorrect" and "correct" items on the list at this point

1. Within 14 (fourteen) calendar days of both parties' receipt of the other party's Evidence List Documents, each shall produce an Evidence Response Document indicating, for each Evidence Item on the Evidence List Document:
   • For the Evidence Item itself, the document shall provisionally indicate either an acceptance of the Evidence Item as genuine, a request for display of the Evidence Item specifying the nature of the display desired , or a rejection of the Evidence Item as fraudulent.
   • If the Evidence Item is accepted as genuine, then additionally either an acceptance that the Evidence Item argues the presenter's point, or a refutation arguing that it does not.
2. Each party should, within 14 (fourteen) calendar days of receiving the other party's Evidence Response Document, submit a Current Status document stating:
   • Whether or not said party wishes to make any changes to their stated position, and
   • Whether or not said party wishes to describe any additional evidence which they believe to be relevant, and
   • Whether or not said party wishes to request any additional display of evidence from the other party.
3. If Defendants' Current Status document states that Defendants wish to change their stated position, then Defendants should additionally submit (together with the Current Status document) a revision of the document described in Phase II, and negotiation shall continue as described in Phase II.
4. If Plaintiff's Current Status document states that Plaintiff wishes to change his stated position, then Plaintiff should additionally submit (together with the Current Status document) a revision of the document described in Phase III, and negotiation shall continue as described in Phase III.
5. At this point, it becomes possible that each side may be submitting one or more documents simultaneously with the other party. Each party may continue responding to said documents as if each such document were the only document currently under consideration as described in the Ground Rules, but if the Defendants believe this may cause confusion, they may simplify the process by announcing, through the usual channels, at any time when more than one document is active, which document or documents should be discarded and which document or documents they believe should remain active.
6. If, however, neither party wishes to make any changes to their stated position, to describe any additional evidence, or to request display of any additional evidence, then negotiation moves to Phase VI-B.

Definitions

• "nature of the display": e.g. for email, a complete unedited copy with all headers; for receipts and other paperwork, the respondant may be satisfied with a photocopy or may ask to see the original; other reasonable forms of display may be specified by the party requesting the display
• "provisionally indicate": acceptance of an Evidence Item as genuine shall not be construed as surrendering the right to request a display later on. nor shall requesting one type of display be construed as surrendering the right to request other types at a later time.
• "active document": any document which has been received, has not yet been responded to, and for which the response deadline has not yet passed, is considered to be "active"

Phase VI-A

• Note: At this point, both parties have reached an agreement on all points of fact and on all conclusions leading from those facts; all that remains is to decide what is a fair and equitable settlement.

1. If neither party suggests a different means of resolution within 14 (fourteen) calendar days, both parties agree
   • to meet in court for Binding Arbitration to decide an appropriate settlement based on the facts and conclusions which have been worked out by negotiations under these Ground Rules
   • to make all documents and evidence presented or discussed under these Ground Rules available for viewing and discussion during said meeting
2. If either party wishes to suggest a different means of resolution, they may do so within 7 (seven) calendar days; if the other party does not respond within 7 (seven) calendar days of receiving said suggestion, then it shall be assumed that said party declines the suggestion, and mediation reverts to Binding Arbitration.

Phase VI-B

Notes

• At this point, although both parties remain in disagreement on some points of fact, conclusions, and/or reasoning used to draw conclusions, the following pieces of information have been arrived at:
  • a list of facts, conclusions, and reasoning which apply to the case at hand;
  • an indication of which of the above are agreed upon by both parties and which are the subject of disagreement;
  • for each disagreement, a list of evidence which each party believes supports that party's view, and/or contradicts the opposing party's view
  • for each disagreement, an explanation from each party of why they believe the given evidence supports that party's view, and/or contradicts the opposing party's view
  • for each piece of evidence provided by a party, an indication from the opposing party as to whether or not the opposing party accepts said evidence as valid and genuine, regardless of whether they agree that it supports the providing party's arguments
• Having condensed the argument down to these essential ingredients should save a great deal of time, as well as reducing the level of confusion to all concerned, in mediation or arbitration.
• What remains to be settled by the arbitrator is (a) what the correct facts and conclusions are, where there is disagreement over same, and (b) what would be an appropriate settlement based on said facts and conclusions.

Procedure

1. If neither party suggests a different means of resolution within 14 (fourteen) calendar days, both parties agree
   • to meet in court for Binding Arbitration to decide an appropriate settlement based on the facts and conclusions which have been worked out by negotiations under these Ground Rules
   • to make all documents and evidence presented or discussed under these Ground Rules available for viewing and discussion during said meeting
2. If either party wishes to suggest a different means of resolution, they may do so within 7 (seven) calendar days; if the other party does not respond within 7 (seven) calendar days of receiving said suggestion, then it shall be assumed that said party declines the suggestion, and mediation reverts to Binding Arbitration.