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Consider this scenario: Plaintiff makes an opening demand of $800,000, defendant counters at $20,000, and the negotiation stalls because each believes the other made an unreasonable opening offer.

The negotiation has barely begun, yet the parties are already at an impasse. This is a perfect time to use “bracketing,” a simple but powerful impasse-breaking technique, particularly when the parties are very far apart.

Bracketing, also called range negotiations, is a technique where parties make conditional offers, allowing the parties to explore other ranges without actually agreeing to them.