OUR GOALS/OUR HISTORY

Business And Civil Disputes

Matters Pertaining to Separation (divorce)

Business And Civil Disputes

2) Preservation of time. Everybody has heard the old saying ‘time is money’. However, this is not really accurate. If we lose a 20 dollar bill, we can replace it. If we lose 20 minutes, it is NEVER coming back. More correctly spoken, time is MORE VALUABLE than money. With this in mind, arbitration can dramatically reduce time involved in virtually EVERY dispute. Whereas litigation can take anywhere between 6 months and 5 years, arbitration usually has matters resolved within one day.

3) Mental stability. One of the most egregious components of disputes is the mental toll they take on all parties. We have even met attorneys who have said they just wanted “the case to go away.” The constant ‘at war’ status of litigation prevents individuals from focusing on both work and family life. With arbitration, the dispute is over quickly and painlessly.

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Over the past 15 years we have successfully arbitrated and mediated civil cases, business disputes, real estate disputes, and matters involving separation (divorce). Additionally, we are well versed in negotiation concerning matters ranging from real estate acquisition to labor disputes to tax resolution.

Our primary areas of specialization are civil disputes in and around matters pertaining to real estate and divorce arbitration (child custody, spousal support and property division); closely followed by low-level civil litigation (matters usually involving less than 5 million dollars).

What’s Fair? We’ve all heard the term Win Win Negotiation. This organization has NEVER operated from this stance. Whenever you hear the term “win win”, you should be thinking - “who lost and what did they lose.”

The true value of an arbitrator is threefold: 1) Getting to the heart of a matter quickly, efficiently and correctly. This means that a professional arbitrator should be able to quickly determine truth. “Truth” defined: what are the key components of the issue and if fault can be determined who bears primary responsibility. 2) Determine what is desired by the parties and what would be considered a fair solution; (these two are not always in congruence). One party may feel especially wronged and be seeking damages that far exceed those any court or jury would EVER hand out. 3) Formulate a resolution that serves the best interests of the disputing parties.

The toughest part of arbitration is the education process. Assisting disputing parties in becoming properly informed as to the true costs and time involved with litigation and with potential outcomes of a trial is of paramount importance. It is this segment of the process which is most important. Once parties are aware of costs, time, and potential case defects, they are more willing to accurately describe the events and to accurately estimate the economics involved in the dispute. If not for this issue, most parties would probably be successful at reaching an agreement without 3rd party intervention.

In the process of arbitration it is very important that the parties absolutely understand, a) the arbitrator is completely neutral and b) the arbitrator’s decision is final. It is therefore extremely important that disputing parties accurately reflect facts and economics, for if an arbitrator feels a case is being “puffed” (deliberately inflated so as to achieve a higher award granted to a disputing party), the arbitrator may also feel that other components of the case are being mis-stated.

If the parties can agree to the true neutrality and fairness of an arbitrator, his/her job becomes far easier and the parties will most likely end up with a fair and just settlement on a matter that could just have easily gone to trial and wasted tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars with the only true winners being the attorneys. (How many times have you heard that statement?)

In our early years, clients could watch dispute settlements take place on average in about one to two days. After more than a decade of dispute resolution, most matters can be resolved in a day or less. However, let’s assume a serious and complex case takes 2 or even 3 days - the costs of arbitration would be infinitesimally smaller than the $100,000 -plus that EACH PARTY could end up spending - with only questionable outcome.

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Divorce Mediation

1) Retention of assets. As previously mentioned, if most divorces or splits result in precalculated settlements - both spousal and child support, then knowing these amounts up front permits movement towards settlement without spending 20, 30, 50 thousand or more on lawyers. Additionally, if you have taken the time to speak with an attorney, you have probably already been informed that he/she requires between 5 and 20 thousand dollars just to take the case. And this is usually FROM EACH SPOUSE since both must hire their own attorneys. Arbitration usually resolves issues in less than one day, bringing the costs to less than a retainer fee that just 1 party would pay to a lawyer.

2) Retention of some level of dignity and relationship between the parties. The idea here is that if a man and woman have agreed to split yet no one is forcing them (or manipulating them) to be mad at the other, the ability to communicate about important things as they pertain to children, finances, friends, etc. enables peaceful coexistence even after the divorce has been finalized. Arbitration enables divorcees to maintain “relationship” with one-another. Just because the marriage has ended does not mean the former partners have to hate one-another - - which is usually the case with prolonged divorce disputes.

3) Mental stability. One of the most egregious components of a divorce is the mental toll it takes on both parties. The constant ‘at war’ status prevents partners from focusing on work, family, or just about anything other than the divorce proceedings itself. Divorce has been referred to by people in the mental health care industry as the single WORST event a person can experience.

Arbitration is over in most cases in just one day. The last thing people need taking an additional mental toll is an extended divorce battle.

4) Maintenance of children’s emotional states. Needless to say, divorce also has a severe impact on children - no matter what age. Being dragged through custody battles does nothing to lessen this impact and obviously worsens the situation. A couple who are NOT constantly arguing, who are NOT constantly speaking negatively of the other spouse, who ARE engaged in amicable proceedings has a child or children learning valuable lessons in relationships while not feeling that their parents hate each other so “now which one do I have to choose.”

In business and civil litigation walking the tightrope of relationship does not take nearly as much care as in divorce situations. HOWEVER, in divorce situations, both parties usually, due to the existence of children, need to maintain contact even after the divorce has been finalized. In civil matters, the parties are usually looking to resolve the situation and get on with their SEPARATE lives.

The tightrope of divorce arbitration is one that only a specific type of professional seems able to master. (And the personality trait associated with this individual is normally NOT associated with members of the legal profession.)

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for information on divorce MEDIATION please click here

In our early days of divorce arbitration and mediation, a great deal of our time was spent attempting to keep couples together or bring them back together. Sometimes these efforts were successful, most of the time they were not. In all but one case, our efforts towards permanent reconciliation failed. In a number of cases temporary reconciliation took place only to have the phone ring 6 months later with a renewed request to arbitrate or mediate.

We are believers in the institutions called marriage and family. If we had our way, couples would not grow apart but would remain married “til death do us part.” However utopian this may be, it is the reason we became involved in the realm of divorce arbitration.

Given that divorce is a state of life, climbing as high as 70% in some regions, and given that we would prefer divorce not ever take place, the next best thing is to try to maintain peaceful coexistence between a man and woman even though a decision has been made to separate. The presence of children (which is the case in more than 7 of 10 divorces) makes agreeing to disagree even more important.

Once attorneys become involved, money and any chance of congeniality are usually out the window. Attorneys earn their money by keeping spouses mad and fighting with one another. The worst part is watching legal fees shoot through the roof while retention of an attorney seems to have little (if any) impact on the actual outcome of a divorce proceeding. Division of property, spousal support, and child support are usually predetermined following pretty specific set of schedules and mathematical calculation of these schedules.

Furthermore, on the Outcomes of Litigated Divorce, children are used as pawns in custody battles and are ripped through court. Spouses who originally cared about one another now hate each other having this outflowing of negative emotion land on children and any other party caught in the crossfire. Split custody ends up mixing up children’s lives giving them no true location to call “home,” while giving them a skewed understanding of how relationships operate.


ARBITRATION OR MEDIATION IS THE ONLY ANSWER FOR DIVORCE - - ALWAYS!

Call 818 707 8177 or 650 324 4007 For A Free Consultation