Category Archives: Collaborative Processes

Before you dive into your dispute, what are your GINs and what’s the best way to satisfy them?

Recently I noticed an online request on a network’s posting system seeking lawyers with experience working on disputes within community non-profit or religious organizations. The situation described involved potentially inappropriate behavior by a member of the organization that may have adversely impacted another member. Besides these two people, the entire organization is also a stakeholder, as the incident raised the …

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Peacemaking: The fulfillment of the legal profession

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. – Matthew 5:9 Earlier this week my daily meditation focused on this Bible verse, spoken by Jesus as part of the Sermon on the Mount. The meditation narrative was a dialogue between the meditation author and his lawyer friend about the basic legal standard we learned in law …

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Satisfying our clients’ emotional due process needs

Emotional due process. What is that, exactly? This notion – emotional due process – jumped out at me when I recently came across it in a report about the September 2018 Global Collaborative Law Council’s (GCLC) annual conference. GCLC President Melanie Atha, a lawyer from Birmingham, Alabama, noted that Collaborative Law can satisfy the need clients in a dispute have …

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Why wouldn’t you work together to solve your legal problem?

Collaborate. Collaboration. Collaborative. In the business world, in medicine, high technology, healthcare, engineering, education, aeronautics, manufacturing, public service, first responders, military defense, invention – in just about every field of endeavor, we see this word popping up over and over again. Pick up a copy of Fast Company magazine and browse it and you will see that word in some …

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10 things to think about BEFORE you decide whether to litigate and which lawyer to hire

You have been wronged or wrongly accused of something and you are upset about it. You are angry with the party that did this to you. All kinds of emotions rush into your head, direct from your heart, without checking with your mind first: I want my vengeance. I want to get back at ____ for what ___ has done to …

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The Time for Dispute Resolution Alternatives (DRA) has come

There was a time, not long ago, when those who found themselves in a dispute had two basic choices:  They could either file a lawsuit/initiate some formal complaint process or they could just walk away from the conflict and try to move on. This essentially amounted to what professionals refer to as the typical default responses of most people – …

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Why I believe in Dispute Resolution Alternatives

I believe in the value of Dispute Resolution Alternatives (DRA) for clients that are in disputes. I believe in them because I have used them, seen them work well, and because they make so much sense. I believe in them because they are not adversarial by nature. They do not divide, separate and drive people apart; instead they work to …

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The Case for Early Mediation; Part II of II

In our last blog post, the first in this two-part post about the case for early mediation, we discussed traditional, post-discovery mediation and its role as essentially an alternative to trial.  In this post, we look at the kind of mediation we are proponents of – early mediation (we call ours “3-D Mediation”) – used either as an alternative to …

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Posted in Audio, Case Evaluation, Collaborative Law, Collaborative Mediation, Collaborative Processes, conflict, Conflict partnering process, Creative Solutions, Cutting litigation costs, Dispute Resolution Advocacy, Dispute Resolution Process, Dispute Resolution Resources, Efficient dispute resolution, Mediation, Preserving Relationships, Primary Dispute Resolution (PDR), resolution, Respect and civility, Saving money in tough times | Comments Off

The Case for Early Mediation; Part I of II

Before We Talk About Mediation and the Value of Early Mediation, Let’s Start with Two Key Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Dispute: How quickly do you want to get your dispute resolved? Is most of the relevant information needed to resolve your dispute the kind that is (a) freely available or ascertainable and (b) are the parties willing and …

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Posted in Audio, Case Evaluation, Collaborative Law, Collaborative Mediation, Collaborative Processes, conflict, Conflict partnering process, Creative Solutions, Cutting litigation costs, Dispute Resolution Advocacy, Dispute Resolution Process, Dispute Resolution Resources, Efficient dispute resolution, Mediation, Preserving Relationships, Primary Dispute Resolution (PDR), resolution, Respect and civility, Saving money in tough times | Comments Off

Resolving a Dispute is like Traveling…

Resolving a Dispute is Like Traveling, Writing a Business Plan, or Choosing a Course of Medical Treatment: If you take the wrong road, you won’t get the result you want. My friend Liz Ferris, a marketing consultant who works with lawyers around the world, has often given us this simple but often overlooked advice: “If you want to achieve your …

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Posted in Arbitration, Case Evaluation, Choose Best Course, Collaborative Law, Collaborative Mediation, Collaborative Processes, Course of Action, Dispute Resolution Process, Dispute Resolution Resources, Efficient dispute resolution, litigation, Mediation, Primary Dispute Resolution (PDR), resolution, Resolve Conflict, Steps to Resolution | Comments Off