The tree used in this example is from David Hoffer, Decision Analysis as a Mediator's Tool, Harvard Negot. Law Review, Vol 1:113 (1996).

In this article, a decision tree is used to depict a hypothetical employment dispute. A former employee has sued the corporation, alleging sex discrimination. The claims include back pay, damages for emotional distress, and compensation for lost future earnings (called front pay). The plaintiff has the burden of proof, and the tree sets forth the elements of the case that must be proven. First, the plaintiff must establish a prima facie case of sex discrimination, as defined in the applicable statute. Second, since the corporation claims to have had a legitimate business justification for the dismissal, the plaintiff must prove that the justification is a pretext for discrimination. If the plaintiff prevails on both of these issues, the defendant will be liable for back pay and, depending on the plaintiff's evidence, may also be liable for emotional distress damages and front pay.

This particular model analyzes the potential costs of litigation from the defendant's perspective. A slightly different payoff formula could be substituted to analyze risks/rewards from the plaintiff's viewpoint.

Prior to analysis, it is possible to modify the baseline estimates of probabilities and other values used in the model. To continue, click on one of the buttons in the navigation frame, or on one of the links below.

View Tree	show the tree, including the current parameter values
Change Values	modify baseline values of model parameters
Analyze Tree	roll back the model based on user inputs