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Exceptional Circumstances Justifying Vacatur When Lower Court Decision Mooted By Settlement: Repeat Litigants Slide Into Home With Second Circuit Decision - Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. V. Pacific Trading Cards, Inc., S. Kristina Starke

Journal of Dispute Resolution

At heart in the scholarship advocating Alternative Dispute Resolution are two interests: one, that using processes such as negotiation, mediation, and arbitration conserve public and private resources otherwise expended on litigation; and two, that in certain circumstances, these alternative processes may provide better justice than would occur in litigation.' However, once litigation of a case has commenced, and an adverse judgment has been made against one party, that party may not be willing to settle the case unless the adverse judgement is vacated.4 Historically, most state and federal courts would routinely grant vacatur when requested by litigants who settled their …