What Is Collaborative Negotiation?
Collaborative negotiation is a conflict resolution process also called collaborative law or collaborative practice. This relatively new process is a joint effort by both parties and two attorneys to work out the existing issues. Collaborative negotiation is very similar to mediation with many of the same benefits (particularly saving both parties time and attorney’s fees). As with mediation, it is also voluntary. Should collaborative negotiation prove not to work for either party, he or she may unilaterally, and without reason, terminate their role in the collaborative process and proceed along the more traditional path of individual representation and court intervention. Either or both attorneys may also withdraw from the process. If that is the case, the other attorney and the parties may continue in the process without the former attorney or substitution counsel may be retained.
