Legal Concepts - Introduction

Laymen can address legal professionals to figure out their legal position, but often resolve their disputes in a casual way, e.g. by mediation, negotiation. During this way parties are given the prospect to form a judgment about whether or not they could hold another party liable for certain caused damage or if they might be held liable themselves. Also, parties can determine how much room for negotiation is out there when settling the damages. Especially this information is vital, since disputes are most often settled between parties themselves, instead of in court or with support of a legal expert. additionally, this information might be used to evaluate the legal advice of the attorney or another legal professional. Naturally, it also helps parties to make a decision whether it's beneficial to require their case to court. Ideally, at the beginning of the negotiations, parties have an idea of what the result would be if their dispute would be decided by a judge. By information about previous court decisions, where relevant taking into consideration other factors like time, costs, emotions, etc., a well-rounded impression is obtained a few parties’ BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement), that is: the result that ought to ideally a minimum of be reached within the negotiations (the threshold). The BEST-project aims to provide disputing parties during a stage before they seek professional assistance with information about their position within the negotiations, to assist them within the dispute, get information about the legal possibilities to claim compensations. The target user group of the program will generally contain laymen within the sector of law, who want to urge an insight into the legal aspects of their dispute.