Try to Compromise Before You Sue
Consider the time at stake. To arrive at a compromise offer, consider how much it's worth to you to eliminate the time and aggravation of going to court. One good approach is to put a dollar value on an hour of your time and then multiply by the number of hours you estimate that going to court will take.
Weigh your chances of winning a lawsuit. Take into consideration the chance that you might lose, or get less than you ask for. In a recent study of 996 small claims cases that actually went to trial:
- only 32% resulted in the plaintiff receiving 100% of the amount claimed
- 22% resulted in the plaintiff getting between 50% and 100% of the amount claimed
- 20% resulted in the plaintiff getting less than half; and
- in 26% of the cases, the plaintiff got nothing at all.
Source: "Small Claims and Traffic Courts," by John Goerdt (National Center for State Courts).
Negotiation Tips
To help you arrive at a good compromise, here are a few sensible negotiation techniques.
Money isn't always at the root of the problem. If you pay close attention to the other party's concerns, you may find that the key to arriving at an agreement can be found elsewhere. For example, a print shop might agree to refund a customer $2,000 on a disputed job in exchange for an agreement to continue to work together and speak well of each other in the future.
The patient negotiator has the edge. Many Americans are in a hurry to arrive at a solution and, in their haste, will concede too much. Take your time. If the other person gets mad and hangs up, you can always wait a few days and call back.
Good negotiators rarely change their position quickly,
even if the other side does. Instead, they raise or lower their offer in small increments. For example, if you are the plaintiff and your opponent counters your offer of a 20% reduction in your demand with an offer to pay only half of what you're asking for, don't jump to accept. It will often make most sense to counter by reducing your original demand a little bit more (to 30% or 35% of the original demand). If you do, there is a decent chance that your opponent will further improve his or her offer. And even if not, you haven't lost anything, since once your opponent has made an offer, he or she is unlikely to withdraw it.
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Copyright 2007 Nolo
