Ten Reasons Mediating Your Dispute is Better Than Litigating: Mediation allows you to: 1. Preserve relationships. 2. Save money. 3. Maintain privacy. 4. Be heard. 5. Focus on resolution. 6. Reduce stress. 7. Avoid unpredictable outcomes. 8. Control the pace of the process. 9. Participate in the process. 10. Communicate […]

I practice dispute resolution — mediation, arbitration, and collaborative law. I mediate, arbitrate, and practice collaborative law in the areas of legal disputes where I have practice experience: appeals (appellate mediation), large and complex cases, mass torts, labor and employment, securities, banking and financial services, and domestic relations. The primary

The term pro se means “on one’s own behalf.” A person is pro se when he or she represents himself or herself. One process for dissolving a marriage is pro se divorce mediation. The parties hire a mediator to assist them in negotiating an agreement to dissolve their marriage, but they do not hire attorneys. The

Collaborative Divorce is a voluntary process in which parties settle disputes without resort to litigation. In Collaborative Divorce: The parties sign a collaborative participation agreement describing the nature and scope of the matter; The parties voluntarily disclose all information which is relevant and material to the matter that must be

What Is Collaborative Practice? Collaborative Divorce. Collaborative Law. Collaborative Practice. You may see the process referred to by any of these names. Here, let’s call it Collaborative Practice to encompass both collaborative civil and collaborative divorce practice. Collaborative practice is a process of dispute resolution in which parties represented by

I have practiced law for twenty-five years. For most of that time, I have been a certified mediator and arbitrator. Mediation, unlike arbitration or lawsuits in court, offers parties the ability to resolve their dispute on their own terms. I have served as a mediator since 1995. I have mediated

This post was originally written in 2012 on a since-discontinued blog. But now that Justice Scalia is gone, President Obama has nominated Judge Merrick Garland to replace him, and the GOP leadership has promised not to allow hearings on the nomination, these observations seem even more current than they were

A few years ago, before my practice began to focus on mediation, arbitration, and collaborative law, a potential client visited my office to ask me to consider taking on a fairly complex matter involving numerous parties, claims, and counterclaims, litigation arising in the Alabama courts which might have expanded to