Too often, parties in legal disputes refuse to negotiate a settlement because they think they'll give up the money (or outcome) they deserve — or pay out more money than what they think is fair. They don't want to compromise. However, doing so is shortsighted. Lawsuits can be expensive, inconvenient, lengthy, unpredictable, and emotionally taxing. And at the end of the day, a settlement could have saved them time, money, and frustration.
If you are:
- A self-represented party involved in a legal dispute who wants to learn techniques for negotiating a settlement; or
- An attorney seeking to improve your negotiation skills —
In Settling the Case: Negotiating and Drafting Settlement Agreements, litigation attorneys Neer Lerner and Elliott Malone combine their extensive experience with settling lawsuits to bring you tips and strategies to negotiate a settlement that you will be satisfied with.
How to Negotiate for the Win
In this video tutorial, you will learn these crucial concepts concerning negotiations:
- Timing: Learn how the timing of your negotiations is critical to the outcome of your settlement. You'll learn tips to save money and time — and methods to help you calculate the value of your settlement.
- Types: You'll discover different settlement avenues to find the one that works best in your situation — and avoid pitfalls that could incur extra costs — like getting stuck paying your opponent's litigation costs and attorney's fees.
- Tips and Strategies: You'll learn: how to evaluate strengths and weaknesses of your (and your opponent's) case to move negotiations forward; What to use as leverage to persuade your opponent to agree to your terms; How to spin weaknesses in your case into strengths in the negotiation process; Ways to save money and get the best settlement possible; and so much more.
- Terms: You'll learn vital elements and clauses to consider including in the terms of your settlement to protect you from future claims relating to the incident and to protect your settlement from being used as evidence in another lawsuit. Plus, you'll learn about confidentiality concerns and other "fine print" details that could come back to haunt you if not included in your settlement agreement.
Negotiation is more of an art than a skill. But you can learn how to draft and fine-tune a settlement that achieves your litigation objectives. Plus, you'll learn common pitfalls to avoid in the settlement process.
Study and apply Settling the Case: Negotiating and Drafting Settlement Agreements to hone your negotiation skills — and give your best effort to reach a settlement that you'll be happy with.
With a settlement, you can have control over the negotiation process, and avoid putting your fate in the hands of a judge or jury—which may or may not decide in your favor.
For more information about negotiating settlements, check out Writing a Pre-Lawsuit Demand Letter.