Perhaps my favorite legal quote is the one from President Lincoln: “Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser — in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.” Lincoln spoke these words over 150 years ago, but they could not be more true today!
At the Professional Resolution Center we are professionals who are dedicated to helping people find peaceful ways to resolve conflict. That is simple and yet complex. We assist people through mediation, parent coordination, collaborative representation, agreement facilitation and negotiation coaching. We teach negotiation and mediation skills. We are attorneys with a combined half century of representing people in court and other adjudicative situations. From this we have learned that there is almost always a better way to solve problems than litigation. This is not to say that the court system in the United States is anything less than the best system in the world. But, lets face it, other than attorneys, no one really wants to end up in court, turning their problems over to a judge. The system is financially and emotionally costly. It is time consuming. It is a public airing of all issues brought before it. And, perhaps most troubling to the litigants, no matter how convinced you are of your position, there is never a guarantee of victory.
The purpose of this blog is to raise awareness of the many alternatives available to people embroiled in conflict. We also hope to educate visitors a bit about some techniques that may help people avoid conflict in the first place, or to resolve it without the need for outside help. After all, knowledge is power and by passing along some of our experience and knowledge we hope to empower our visitors. The purpose of the blog is simply to discourage litigation!