Advantages of the Collaborative Process - Comparison of Collaborative Practice and Litigation

Comparison of Collaborative Practice and Litigation

The following table compares Collaborative Practice and Litigation.

	Collaborative Practice	Litigation
Communication:	open, honest, shared	guarded, secretive, deceptive, strategic
	educational	coercive
	no blaming/no fault finding	blaming and fault finding
Attitudes:	trust in process	mistrust and suspicion
	some mutual concerns	individualistic
	future focused	past focused
	assertive	aggressive/defensive
	client empowered to solve problems with other client	lawyer responsible for solving problems and for solutions
Process:	negotiate from interests	bargain from positions
	attack problems	attack each other
	develop acceptable, objective standards	use whatever standard will advance position
	create choices to meet individual needs	consider only competing individual positions
	create choices for mutual gain	consider only choices which advance position
Outcome:	solutions acceptable to both	win big/lose big
	compromise to meet mutual and individual needs	barter to get compromise
	mutual ownership of process solutions	feeling of being overpowered
	dignity	battle scars
	continuing relationship important	alienation
	learn skills to solve future problems	need to battle in court again to solve future problems