For example, an insurance carrier may see a case as one for legal precedence on a coverage issue, or a case may involve precedence-setting civil rights issues. In these cases, however, you can still negotiate procedural matters. For example, the parties could benefit from negotiating the briefing schedule or a discovery schedule. The parties may also be amenable to negotiating the amount of damages to be paid after a ruling by either a trial court or appellate court on the issue of law. Most courts have various settlement programs, one of which is usually a voluntary settlement program that is party-initiated.
Some courts assign volunteer lawyers to attempt to mediate or settle the dispute.
These can be single lawyers or panels of lawyers that act in a settlement capacity. In other instances, the parties may choose a private mediation or arbitration program. The limitation of voluntary programs is that they usually require both parties to agree to enter into such a program. Even with such limitations, they are helpful in providing the parties with a neutral third party to mediate the dispute. A third party s perspective of the case is especially helpful in emotionally charged cases.