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

Phase I

Plaintiff sends initial proposal of facts

1. Plaintiff will prepare a document stating:
   • 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.
3. Defendants will respond to said document within 14 (fourteen) calendar days, indicating:
   • Their agreement or disagreement with each stated fact
   • 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 II

Plaintiff responds to Defendants

1. Within 14 (fourteen) calendar days of receiving Defendants' response, Plaintiff will either:

   (A) Agree to all suggested changes - in which case the process moves to Phase III-B

   (B) Disagree with some of the suggested changes

Phase III-A

Plaintiff and Defendants go to Mediation

Phase III-B

Plaintiff and Defendants agree on settlement

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