Let’s face it, there will be times when you and your Board Members disagree with another party on a varying list of potential items. The items of disagreement may be endless, and the other party may be a fellow community member, a vendor hired by the community, etc. Finding a means to settle such disagreements in an amicable way is essential. Fortunately, there are four primary ways to attain settlement and hopefully restore harmony to your community. These ways include negotiation, mediation, arbitration and lastly litigation.
Hopefully the first step you may attempt is negotiation. “Let’s see if we can come to some sort of agreement in this matter.” It’s said that a good negotiation is one where no one is happy. In a sense, you have to give something up to get what you want. This is the least expensive of the options, optimistically speaking.
Mediation is where you and the other party meet with a single, third party entity who aids in facilitating the discussion in hopes of finding some common ground for an agreement. It’s basically a negotiation mechanism to settle outside of the court system. The mediator, in most cases, does not have binding authority nor provides a legal opinion in the disputed matter.
Arbitration, while similar to mediation, may include a panel of arbiters which will hear the evidence, professional options, facts, etc from each party and determine a settlement based on what was presented. The venue is quite similar to a court of law as each party may be represented by legal counsel and the authority to provide a binding ruling is determined by each of the parties participating beforehand.
In litigation, you guessed it, you’re most likely going to court if the matter is not settled as you are now taking legal action. This is the most expensive option and will hold the highest of binding authority if it goes before a judge. There’s not much to add on this option as we are all familiar with lawsuits and the binding effect of the courts.
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