If your client receives a telephone call from his or her spouse who asks to begin negotiations right then, tell your client to say "no". Try to get your client to buy some time for a more prepared response. Such a pressured negotiation is risky for your client, partly because the spouse has the advantage of surprise, and partly because your client cannot see the spouse's physical reactions to your client's side of the conversation. Sometimes, particularly for spouses who find face-to-face interaction painful or even unbearable, the phone is the only alternate forum for negotiations. The problem is that there is never enough time on the phone to think out your client's respective positions, and it is easier to misunderstand each other than in face-to-face talks. Also, it is easier to say "no" over the phone than it person, and "no" is not always conducive to productive negotiations.

Your client probably outweighs his or her telephone by about 100 to 1, so the client should not be afraid to put it on its cradle if the telephone negotiations turn ugly!

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