March 2012 – Mediation

Owens & Perkins, Attorneys at Law handles a broad scope of legal matters, e.g., Business Law and Civil Litigation, Criminal Law (both felonies and misdemeanors), Estate Planning, Probate and Family Law. We, therefore, know that legal conflicts are expensive and time consuming. Thus, in always putting our clients’ interests at the forefront, we offer them the option, in applicable cases, of mediating and/or arbitrating a dispute as opposed to litigating in Court. Of course, you can’t avoid Courts in trials for bank robberies and drug operations but you can in most matters, i.e., construction disputes, business matters, probate and family law cases. But each party has to agree to do it. Litigation can cost clients on both sides of a dispute $20,000 to over $over 130,000 and take a year and a half or more to have a judge and/or jury make the decision for you. There is another way where you don’t have to go to Court. You can agree to mediate and resolve the dispute in our conference rooms here at Owens & Perkins. You can do it in a small fraction of the time and cost of litigation. For example, a case that would cost litigants $20,000 each over a time span of a year could very well be mediated in a few hours and the paperwork completed to final judgment in two or three weeks for $6,000 or $7,000 in total fees and costs covering both parties. Some matters can be a combination of mediation and arbitration where the parties reach agreement on most of the issues and agree to authorize the mediator to make final decisions on the other issues as an arbitrator. Last year Owens & Perkins provided mediation services where one of the parties was here in our conference room and the other party was in London, England. It’s all strictly confidential and has a high rate of success in reaching agreement. Upon conclusion of the mediation/arbitration, Owens & Perkins will prepare documents to conclude the matter. No Court appearance would be required. This is just another service offered to clients of Owens & Perkins, P.C.