Why Choose the Civil Collaborative Process

Welcome to Civil Collaborative Practice in Sonoma County, as practiced by the members of the Collaborative Council of the Redwood Empire, a professional group dedicated to respectfully resolving disputes. Civil Collaborative Practice is an innovative new process that uses collaborative strategies rather than adversary techniques to resolve civil disputes such as those between neighbors, those between owners of a family business, probate disputes, employment disputes, and the like.  So why choose the Civil Collaborative Process for your dispute?

You want a civilized, respectful resolution of the issues.

• You want to keep open the possibility of a respectful relationship (perhaps even the possibility of a friendship) after the dispute is resolved.
• You want to protect your family from the harm associated with conflict in, for example, your family business.
• You share a circle of friends or extended family in common that all participants want to remain connected to.
• You have ethical or spiritual beliefs that place high value on taking personal responsibility for handling conflicts with integrity.
• You value your privacy in your personal affairs and you do not want details of your problems to be available in the public Court record.
• You believe that you are able to make the best decisions for yourself and do not want to hand over decision-making to a stranger, such as a Judge.
• You want to create a creative and individual solution to your problem.
• You understand that resolving your dispute with integrity involves not only achieving your own goals but finding a way to respect the reasonable goals of the other people involved.
• You wish to fix a problem rather than apportion blame and you want to work creatively toward solving the problem rather than exacting revenge.

We are glad you are here, and hope that you will find our website useful and informative.