How to Keep Your Client When Litigation Isn’t the Answer
Every litigation attorney encounters the circumstance at one time or another: a long-standing client approaches you with a stubborn, both-sides-believe-they’re-right matter for which the many costs of litigation, and probably even getting to mediation, will be unreasonable compared to the limited money at stake.
- How can you deliver real and economic justice to the client?
- How can you remain the trusted legal advisor of first resort for your client and not take the case?
- Do you take the case and know that you will steeply discount your fees throughout an uncertain and open-ended nightmare?
You want to help, but the economics just don’t add up for either of you.
Just Resolve is an alternative dispute resolution forum and process for resolving this kind of dispute in a way that truly meets all of the above concerns. Instead of an adversarial resolution process with all its attendant costs, Just Resolve administers a high-integrity, neutral-driven method that delivers quality outcomes in a fraction of the time and cost. Because its simple, practical method is directed by mutually agreed neutrals, the cost to each party can be fixed at the outset at a level guaranteed not to consume most of the stakes. Your clients’ budget and cash flow are assured in a fast, fair process. The other side gets all the same benefits as you and your client, and proposing this solution communicates strength and belief, not weakness. Finally, Just Resolve is not a competing law practice threatening to undermine your client relationship and your critical role in high stakes disputes. So you can refer (and advise on) appropriate matters with confidence, creating a relative win-win for all concerned.
More to read
NDR on Demand: What Happens When a Contract Doesn’t Specify How a Dispute Will Be Resolved?
The best way to deter threats of litigation and minimize the costs, duration, and distractions of resolving any dispute is to put a dispute resolution clause specifying NDR — Neutral-Driven Resolution — in all your contracts BEFORE there is a problem. That means that if a dispute should arise between a business and a contractor,…
They Said NDR Would Never Work. They Were Wrong.
Many people are surprised by how effective NDR can be. Since publishing my book and speaking at events about NDR (Neutral-Driven Resolution), I’ve often been asked a simple question: Does it work? And if it really does lower the costs and the time it takes to settle common disputes, why doesn’t everybody know about…
“Morgan Hill author releases new book”
The Morgan Hill Times featured Rob’s new book in an article ahead of his “Meet the Author” night at Booksmart. “Legal disputes and conflicts cost businesses billions of dollars a year in lawyers’ fees, lost productivity, time and aggravation. A new book by Morgan Hill author Robert Christopher proposes an innovative, faster and simpler way…
Not All Disputes are Equal
Not all business and legal disputes are alike, and not all of them can be resolved in the same way. In writing my book Just Right: How Neutral-Driven Resolution Can Close the Gap in American Civil Justice, it was important to distinguish the types of common disputes for which NDR is most suitable. As readers…