SvsG Proposed Ground Rules

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

Negotiation About Ground Rules

Plaintiff agrees to the following rules and terminology, in the hopes of arriving at a set of Ground Rules which are agreeable to both parties:

• Defendants may request or demand changes.
• For each change requested or demanded by Defendants, Plaintiff will consider three possibilities:
  1. making the change exactly as stated, knowing that the Defendants would then have no cause for further grievance on the issue raised;
  2. making a counter-proposal (request), knowing that this risks further disagreements over the issue raised, taking time and effort from both parties and possibly resulting in failure to agree
  3. denying the request, knowing that:
     • If the change was a request, the Defendants may be unwilling to consider agreeing to the ground rules resulting from said denial
     • If the change was a demand, then Plaintiffs' denial of the request essentially brings all further negotiation to an end.
• If it so happens that neither party has any requests or demands for changes, then the Ground Rules will be taken as accepted by both parties.

Negotiation on the Case at Hand

Overview

• Phase I: Plaintiff sends initial proposal of facts, and Defendants respond
• Phase II: Plaintiff responds to Defendants' responses
• Phase III: Plaintiff and Defendants have reached an impasse on certain points, so they now provide documentation which argues in favor of their opinion on each point
• Phase IV-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 in order to more easily arrive at a settlement that is fair to both parties.
• Phase IV-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.

Notes

Where something is said to be "stated", it is to be understood that this means "written down as part of a document".

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

1. 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 V-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 Document (i.e. one such document from the Plaintiff and one from the Defendants) and present said Evidence Document to the other party.
2. Each Evidence Document will 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

(Notes to self: receiving party may ask to see the actual physical evidence or full text, including headers, of emails; responding party must provide said evidence or full text within 14 days of the request.)

Phase V-B

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