Originially from: World Arbitration and Mediation Review (WAMR)

The Use of Principals in Minitrials
By Brian Rauer, Tulane Law School. This is the second installment of
Mr. Rauer’s paper “The Mini-Trial: Bringing the Disputes Back into the
Office.” The first installment, “The Neutral Advisor: Friend or Foe?”
appeared at 3 WAMR 203.
The term “principal” refers to those individuals, selected as
representatives of the parties to a dispute, who seek to negotiate a
settlement after hearing competing “best case” presentations. This cursory
definition provides little insight, however, into the true role of the
principal in the minitrial proceeding.
Number of Principals
While the use of up to three principals representing each side was
suggested in a 1986 American Bar Association ADR Subcommittee
Report, there is a marked trend toward employing only one principal from
each party. The latter approach is advantageous in several respects: (1) it
expedites the crucial negotiation segment of the minitrial; (2) it simplifies
the “hearing”; and (3) it is generally less burdensome on the entire
process. There are, however, exceptionally complex disputes which dictate
the utilization of a “panel” of principals to adequately access the issues
and negotiate effectively.
A further consideration, though, should be the additional corporate
“expense” of utilizing several principals for a minitrial. Most corporations
can ill afford to forgo the services of a single high ranking official, let
alone the services of an entire square. Indeed, such considerations
generally spawn the selection of a minitrial format in the first place, as the
time demanded of key management personnel is highly abbreviated as
compared to the time commitments of a lawsuit. Moreover, despite the
fact that an entire minitrial may range from one to two months in duration,
the principal’s services are only required for a fraction of that time. In
general, the corporate attorneys representing each party prepare the actual
cases, in their entirety, for the principal negotiators, who need only
concentrate their efforts on the negotiation phrase of the minitrial
following the hearing.