Osborn Conflict Resolution can guide you in pursuing client-driven resolution, instead of costly, lawyer-driven litigation. A collaborative process agreement at the outset ensures that each party, and their lawyer, is commitment to honest, open discussion, information sharing, and respectful good-faith negotiation in good faith.

Collaborative law is not only for situations where the conflict is minimal. We negotiate tirelessly to achieve as many of our client's goals as possible, just like any other advocate or litigation attorney. But under the collaborative law model, parties and their collaboratively trained attorneys work together in pursuit of a mutually agreeable outcome that saves clients time, money, and stress.

From cases involving construction and contract disputes, to matters involving small businesses, churches, and non-profits, the collaborative process helps parties achieve a more positive outcome, even when it may feel like the dispute or conflict is insurmountable.

What does the Collaborative Process look like?

Our trained collaborative law practitioners provide you with a comprehensive overview of the collaborative law process, as well as its particular benefits and suitability for particular kinds of cases. The primary benefits of a collaborative law process include:

• Execution of a collaborative participation agreement whereby all parties and counsel committed to creative-problem solving—instead of transferring their hard feelings and mistrust to the battlefield of the adversary process in litigation.
• Establishment of initial ground rules and principles of effective communication--instead of engaging in a rule-driven chess match which can often seem like pointless procedural posturing
• Cooperation in exchanging pertinent information and documents that each party would need in order to make a fully-informed decisions—instead of a labyrinthine discovery process marked chiefly by lawyerly objections and obfuscations
• Scheduling of private collaborative problem-solving sessions at your convenience--rather than an open battle waged as a matter of public record on a court’s timetable
• Early evaluation and insight from neutral professionals—instead of an expensive and often unenlightening battle of “hired gun” experts)
• Open-minded negotiation towards comprehensive resolutions—instead of pell-mell pursuit of winner-take-all outcomes in front of a judge or jury whose behavior may be impossible to predict

navigating disputes across the map

Here are just a few examples of specific areas that we can help you navigate through the collaborative law approach:

• Business ownership disputes
• Minority shareholder disuputes
• Construction contract claims and lien disputes
• Real estate contracts
• Non-compete and non-solicitation agreements
• Church disputes

If you have a leadership deadlock a shareholder dispute, or an organizational impasse that you think might benefit from this process, we would be glad to assess whether your situation is a good fit for collaborative, or help you choose another alternative dispute resolution method.