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NDR on Demand: What Happens When a Contract Doesn’t Specify How a Dispute Will Be Resolved?

The best way to deter threats of litigation and minimize the costs, duration, and distractions of resolving any dispute is to put a dispute resolution clause specifying NDR — Neutral-Driven Resolution — in all your contracts BEFORE there is a problem. That means that if a dispute should arise between a business and a contractor, supplier, or customer, NDR will be the already-agreed method of resolving it. It can be done simply and at the beginning of a relationship –Read More

They Said NDR Would Never Work. They Were Wrong.

Many people are surprised by how effective NDR can be.   Since publishing my book and speaking at events about NDR (Neutral-Driven Resolution), I’ve often been asked a simple question: Does it work? And if it really does lower the costs and the time it takes to settle common disputes, why doesn’t everybody know about it? Why isn´t it like Starbucks — everywhere?   The second part of the question is complicated, as I point out in Chapter Nine ofRead More

Not All Disputes are Equal

Not all business and legal disputes are alike, and not all of them can be resolved in the same way. In writing my book Just Right: How Neutral-Driven Resolution Can Close the Gap in American Civil Justice, it was important to distinguish the types of common disputes for which NDR is most suitable.  As readers of my blog (and my book) know, NDR – Neutral-Driven Resolution – has become my passion. I developed it to help solve a large andRead More

Press Release

New Alternative Dispute Resolution Book Describes Innovative Method to Lower Costs, Aggravation of Business and Legal Disputes  A Neutral-Driven Resolution Process Saves Substantial Time, Money, Stress SAN JOSE, Calif., March 24, 2022 — Legal disputes and conflicts cost businesses billions of dollars a year in lawyers’ fees, lost productivity, time, and aggravation. A new book proposes an innovative, faster, and simpler way to settle common business and legal disputes without absurdly high costs and headaches of lengthy litigation or traditionalRead More

How could trying to recover a $47,000 bill end up costing $75,000 in legal fees?

It sounds crazy, but it’s all too true: a limited-stakes dispute over $47,000 costing more than one-and-a-half times that in legal fees in a failed attempt to recover it. That might sound impossible, or worse, outright fraud. But it happens far too often. It happened to me in a case I handled for a small family-owned animal testing lab. The lab was owed $47,000 from a pharmaceutical company that was refusing to pay. It was a case that was ripeRead More

Why Lawyers Should Like Neutral-Driven Dispute Resolution

NDR – Neutral-Driven Dispute Resolution – is a less costly and less adversarial way to settle limited-stakes business disputes. It’s driven by neutral judges, peers, or experts, agreed upon in advance by both parties. It’s faster, more affordable, and more collaborative for everyone involved. So, as a lawyer, you may ask, “What’s in it for me?” It’s true that NDR removes legal battles from the process of settling these types of disputes, which traditionally can often cost more in legalRead More

The ‘Just Right’ Way to Recover Bad Business Debts Without Going Broke

If you run a small or medium size business, one of these days you’re going to have a dispute – with a client, a vendor, customer, or supplier. It will happen. Maybe someone refuses to pay you for the work you did or services you provided. Or they paid you with a check that bounced. Or the reverse ¬– you paid for work that was never completed or supplies that were never delivered. There are several options for trying toRead More

Disagreements Happen: Resolution can be non-adversarial

Business disputes are expected to grow in 2021-2022, but litigation and conventional arbitration can be poor options. The movement toward non-adversarial dispute resolution is gaining momentum. A 2021 survey of business owners and managers reported a higher frequency of disputes throughout 2020 primarily due to the Covid-19 pandemic and its unexpected disruption of normal business operations. Most of the increase in conflicts grew out of commercial and labor disputes that are expected to continue into 2022. In response to thisRead More

Just Resolve’s NDR Process v. Lawyers and Litigation

The value of Just Resolve’s Neutral Driven Dispute Resolution (NDR) service is best illustrated by comparing the time and money required for the NDR process to lawyer-driven litigation. For limited stakes situations, the advantages of using NDR from Just Resolve stand out. Just Resolve’s Goal is Resolution Just Resolve focuses all parties’ attention on resolving the dispute with as little disruption and hostility as possible. Since each party to a dispute agrees in advance to be bound by the NDRRead More

Important Clauses in a Contract

In a world of rapid change, running a business is harder than ever before. While the pandemic slowed some activities, many business owners have seen acceleration in business disagreements. Business misunderstandings that grow into disputes and legal conflicts are very real things which can negatively impact your business. Whether it is the high lawyer costs from contract disputes, the loss of time, or the effect on employee relationships, legal disputes wreak havoc. A study released by the U.S. Chamber InstituteRead More