The Y2K international waters begin to heat up.

Diane

Fearing glut of lawsuits, companies endorse dispute resolution

Saturday, December 11, 1999

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/1999/12/11/international0132EST0449.DTL

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

(12-11) 01:32 EST TORONTO (AP) -- Anticipating a glut of Y2K-related lawsuits, lawyers and businesses in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and other countries are agreeing to try to negotiate or mediate disputes before going to court.

More than 550 businesses, governments and industry groups worldwide have signed the Millennium Accord, which commits them to spend three weeks negotiating problems and going to mediation if unableto reach a settlement, according to sponsors of the agreement.

Signers of the measure sponsored by companies and dispute resolution groups retain the right to legal action, but will first look for alternatives to costly and time-consuming court cases, supporters say.

Litigation costs linked to turn-of-the-century computer problems could exceed $1 trillion, according to various estimates.

The Y2K problem is the possibility that some older computers, designed to read years as two digits, might fail when New Year's Eve changes to Jan. 1 because they might mistake the year 00 as 1900 rather than 2000.

While no one can accurately predict the scope of Y2K problems, the technological connections of modern society mean that any troubles could quickly spread and escalate into ``complex multiparty disputes,'' said Judy Ballantyne, executive director of the Canadian Foundation for Dispute Resolution.

The United States has passed a law designed to limit lawsuits related to Y2K problems by limiting some damages and other steps.

Under the Millennium Accord, signatories that include major international corporations such as Nestle, Texaco, Ericsson, Nortel, British Airways, AC Nielson, British American Tobacco and Compaq Computers agree to try to avoid lawsuits altogether.

Dispute resolution groups in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Honk Kong and Singapore will offer information and names of experienced negotiators, mediators and others who can be hired by the disputing parties to resolve their differences, Ballantyne said.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 11, 1999