“The passions are the same in every conflict,
large or small.” Mason Cooley. City Aphorisms, Ninth Selection,
New York (1992).
Evaluation & Investigation
Services
Evaluation and investigation services involve the conflict
professional reviewing different data and making a written
or oral analysis and recommendation to one or more parties
to a conflict.
One example is a situation where the parties had a divorce
document that stated that their marital home was to be sold
when an specific event was to occur and outlined how the proceeds
were to be split between them. However, the language
was open to two or more interpretations. The parties
and their attorneys decided to hire a neutral third party to
review the language and, based on her experience, give a written
opinion of how a court would rule if they were to file suit. This
helped them reach a negotiated settlement.
In a more involved situation, such as a claim of sexual harassment
in a work situation, the neutral professional would interview
a number of witnesses as well as the complaining employee and
the employee(s) against whom the complaints were made, and
provide the employer with a written evaluation and analysis
of what outcome they might expect if the matter were to proceed
to court. Again, this would help the parties negotiate
a settlement without the added time and expense of court litigation.