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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,…
Read MoreThey 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…
Read More“Morgan Hill author releases new book”
The Morgan Hill Times featured Rob’s new book in an article ahead of his “Meet the Author” night at Booksmart. “Legal disputes and conflicts cost businesses billions of dollars a year in lawyers’ fees, lost productivity, time and aggravation. A new book by Morgan Hill author Robert Christopher proposes an innovative, faster and simpler way…
Read MoreNot 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…
Read MorePress 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…
Read MoreHow 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…
Read MoreLitigation Nightmares
I’ve been working on my upcoming book about our neutral-driven dispute resolution. It begins with a litigation nightmare from my own law practice about a start-up drug company who disputed a bill from a testing lab after the study results weren’t favorable. Read the excerpt to see what happened. The start-up drug company’s CEO was…
Read MoreWhat Makes a Neutral a “Good” Neutral?
The number one consideration for choosing a dispute resolution service is making sure your neutral is good, whether they are a mediator, arbitrator, or arbiter; but what makes a neutral good? What does “good” really mean in this context? After interviewing business owners in depth to figure out what matters to them the most about…
Read MoreWhat Mt. Kilimanjaro Taught Me About Business
Picture this: ten friends slogging their way up Mt. Kilimanjaro – each one carefully copying the foot placements of the person in front of him. Now add in extreme weather, sleep deprivation and the lurking possibility of injury. About a month ago, that was my reality. The air was thin, but the penchant for adventure…
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