ABSTRACT
As explained in the previous chapter, environmental litigation is deleterious to business interests and can be and should be avoided whenever possible. In sophisticated and complex environmental cases, lawyers’, consultants’, and experts’ fees mount quickly. In addition to the expenses involved, backlogs and other delays frequently occur so that resolution of cases takes many months and, in Motorola’s, Rockwell’s, and Dow’s cases, years. Litigation is always disruptive to business and outcomes are never certain. Settlement in most civil cases occurs after discovery is completed and a trial date is quickly approaching. By that time, the parties have become so polarized that collaborative outcomes are unlikely and relationships, to the extent that they exist, are strained, if not broken forever.
