About
Born from a decade of frustration with the way disputes are resolved.
Neutral-Directed ADR™ is not a modification of the existing options. It is a rethinking of the process from the ground up — designed to reach correct decisions on the merits, efficiently, without the structural waste built into every conventional approach.
Brian Sabey — Founder
Brian Sabey is an attorney with ten years of experience in litigation, and significant additional experience in mediation and arbitration. Over the course of his practice, he grew deeply frustrated with the structural wastefulness of adversarial dispute resolution — the indiscriminate discovery, the gamesmanship, the procedural costs that drive settlement discussions entirely disconnected from the merits of a case.
After becoming aware of alternative concepts in dispute resolution — including academic critiques of adversarial fact-gathering — Brian spent the last year developing what he believes is the best possible process for resolving disputes that are not worth many millions of dollars. The result is Neutral-Directed ADR™.
Brian can be reached at brian@ndadr.com.
What makes this process different
The neutral is more effective
In traditional mediation, the mediator knows only what the parties choose to share — which means posturing and bluffing dominate, and the mediator is rarely positioned to weigh in on the merits. In Neutral-Directed ADR™, the neutral studies all the evidence and researches the law before mediation begins. That changes everything about what mediation can accomplish.
Mediation and arbitration are unified
If mediation fails, the cost is usually entirely sunk — you start over with a new process. In Neutral-Directed ADR™, the neutral who conducted mediation becomes the arbitrator, carrying their full understanding of the case forward. No duplication of work. No reset. The case advances from exactly where it stands.
Discovery is neutral-directed
Adversarial discovery is the engine of litigation's waste — indiscriminate, combative, and expensive. In this process, the neutral decides what discovery is necessary and proportional, takes it, and distributes the evidence to both parties. The goal is to gather what the case actually requires, not what each side's attorneys can extract from each other.
Decisions are made as soon as justified
The neutral begins issuing findings of fact and conclusions of law as soon as the law and evidence support them — not at the end of a trial. This creates constant momentum toward resolution, and often enables settlement at precisely the moment a binding ruling shifts the calculus for one or both parties.
Questions about the process?
The FAQ covers how the process works, what it costs, what types of disputes it's designed for, and how to serve as a neutral.
Read the FAQ