Collaborative Law
The collaborative law process is well suited for business, employment, construction, family, and trust and estate disputes in North Carolina. Through collaborative law, the parties engage in the open exchange of information outside the courtroom and work together to find creative solutions that work for everyone. Rather than engaging in a gladiator-style fight where there is only one victor, who is battle worn himself, the beauty and innovation of collaborative law is that all parties win.
In the traditional litigation model, when the parties negotiate, they are usually bargaining over how to slice a pie — that pie, of course, being a fixed and finite size. Typically, in traditional litigation negotiations, if you get more pie, I necessarily get less pie. Collaborative lawyers, on the other hand, are trained to think beyond and around limiting beliefs to find ways of expanding the pie so that everyone can eat their fill. Rather than positional bargaining, our collaborative attorneys utilize interest-based negotiation techniques as well as nonviolent communication (NVC) skills (developed by the late psychologist, Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D) as we strive to more effectively meet our clients’ interests and needs.
Collaborative law provides our clients with an opportunity to transform their relationships while solving their legal problems creatively and compassionately. Compared to the traditional litigation model, collaborative law offers a quicker, more affordable, and less traumatic path toward conflict resolution.