Apologies and Settlement Levers

[Sapphire Capital]

Apologies and Settlement Levers

Jennifer K. Robbennolt
University of Illinois College of Law


August 4, 2008

Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Vol. 3, p. 333, 2006
Illinois Public Law Research Paper No. 08-04

Abstract:
This study uses experimental methods to explore the role of apologies in legal settlement negotiation. Specifically, the study examines the influences of apologies on disputants' perceptions, and the effects of apologies on a number of judgments that influence negotiation outcomes--settlement levers such as reservation prices, aspirations, and judgments of fair settlement amounts. Five-hundred fifty-sex participants were asked to take the role of potential plaintiffs, to provide their reactions to an experimental scenario, and to indicate the values they would set for each settlement lever. The nature of the communication with the offender and the description of the evidentiary rule governing the admissibility of the offender's statement were manipulated. The data suggest that apologies can promote settlement by altering the injured parties' perceptions of the situation and the offender so as to make them more amenable to settlement discussions and by altering the values of the injured parties' settlement levers in ways that are likely to increase the chances of settlement. The results suggest further, however, that the nature of the apology itself as well as the factural circumstances surrounding the incident may play important roles in how apologies are understood.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1305266_code642493.pdf?abstractid=1201482&mirid=2

[Sapphire Capital]

Attorneys, Apologies, and Settlement Negotiation

Jennifer K. Robbennolt
University of Illinois College of Law



Harvard Negotiation Law Review, Forthcoming
Illinois Public Law Research Paper No. 08-05
U Illinois Law & Economics Research Paper No. LE08-033

Abstract:
Empirical researchers have begun to explore the influence of apologies on litigant decision making. This research has found that the effects of apologies on decision making are complex, but that apologies generally influence claimants' perceptions, judgments, and decisions in ways that are likely to make settlement more likely - for example, altering perceptions of the dispute and the disputants, decreasing negative emotion, improving expectations about the future conduct and relationship of the parties, changing negotiation aspirations and fairness judgments, and increasing willingness to accept an offer of settlement.

Legal negotiation, however, is often characterized by the involvement of attorneys in the negotiation process. There are reasons to anticipate that attorneys may respond differently to apologies than do their clients. Attorneys as agents occupy qualitatively different roles in the process than do their clients and may have an orientation toward analytical thinking and legal rules that influences their understanding of the implications of apologies. This paper empirically explores how attorneys respond to apologies offered in litigation as they advise claimants about settlement, and compares the reactions of attorneys to those of claimants. While attorneys understand the information conveyed by apologies in ways that are strikingly similar to claimants, attorneys' judgments about settlement when apologies are offered diverge from those of claimants.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1275419_code517200.pdf?abstractid=1275419&mirid=2