Mediating a Road Authority Claim on Behalf of a Municipality

Mediation is an increasingly common form of dispute resolution and one which provides many benefits to any party who would otherwise engage in litigation. However, there are several benefits and concerns which are unique to municipalities named as defendants in motor vehicle accident claims. Municipalities are limited to judge only trials, they often have significantly higher insurance limits than their co-defendants, and they are often resistant to settling a claim early on a purely economic basis. These are all considerations that counsel for a municipality must consider when advising a client.

The Risks of Litigating a Claim

Section 1 of the Negligence Act requires that where two defendants have contributed in any way to a plaintiff's damages "they are jointly and severally liable" and that in the absence of any contract saying otherwise, each of them is liable to contribute to or indemnify the other. Therefore if a municipality has even one percent of the