In the adjudicatory process, two interested parties try to persuade a neutral party who decides the outcome of the case. The collaborative approach attempts to understand the parties' underlying interests, the conflicts between those interests, and ways for mitigating or eliminating the adverse effects of each party's interest-advancing behavior. The former approach is retrospective, the latter is prospective. The adjudicatory method seeks to assess responsibility and liability while the collaborative method seeks to compromise. The legal system blurs the distinctions by using collaborative techniques to negotiate settlements in adjudicatory processes. This has contributed to the development of negotiation theory which distinguishes between disputes as distributive, that which involves bargaining for limited resources needed to meet a vital goal, or integrative, that which permits an exchange of accommodations. This theoretical background leads to the development of a three-tiered process of ADR which combines adjudicatory, settlement, and collaborative procedures. 1 table, 1 reference.