When faced with threatened or filed litigation by current or former employees, many companies never consider alternatives to expensive protracted litigation. Instead, companies insist that they will never settle and will litigate for as long as necessary. The rationale behind this “no settlement” policy is supposedly to deter additional employee litigation. The reality is, however, that this internal policy may not prevent or minimize the instances of litigation. Moreover, these companies do usually settle prior to trial, but often only after years of legal expense and potentially damaging discovery. Accordingly, a blanket “no settlement” policy may not be in the best interests of the company’s bottom line. There are three instances where companies should put aside their instinct to litigate and explore mediation.

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