Improvisational Negotiation
Chapter One
Memories
Ray, the general manager of Vista State Park, straightened the
papers in front of him. As he looked down the long conference
table to where the plaintiffs sat, he was confident that his offer
would be accepted. Who could turn down that much money?
"According to our research," he began, "$800,000 is adequate
compensation for your loss, and that's what we're offering."
Martha and Jim Amato, the plaintiffs, were stunned. Martha
felt sick to her stomach, as if she had been punched. The pain of
her boys' deaths had seemed impossible to bear, but the insensitivity
of this negotiation was brutal. Three years earlier, near the
end of a long summer vacation, Johnny, eight, and Scott, ten, had
been riding their bikes in the state park near their home-just as
they had nearly every day since June. But on this day, a Parks
Service gardener who had been drinking on the job got in his state-owned
truck and drove straight across the bike path, crashing into
the boys and killing them instantly.
Martha and Jim were devastated: everything they valued ha ... read full excerpt from Improvisational Negotiation: A Mediator's Stories of Conflict About Love, Money, Anger and the Strategies That Resolved Them ebook
