Private, voluntary and contractually based way to end your marriage and resolve all issues in a dignified and respectful fashion
The Collaborative Law Process is a private, voluntary and contractually based way to end your marriage and resolve all issues in a dignified and respectful fashion The separating spouses are able to make their own decisions and control the outcome with the assistance and advice of specially trained attorneys.
In a divorce case, court hearings and high legal costs have come to form the common context for the ending of a relationship. With Collaborative Law, however, a settlement can be reached out of court, with an emphasis on discussion and understanding, rather than confrontation and accusation. If you are seeking to end a relationship as smoothly as possible, while keeping communication calm and dignified, Collaborative Law may offer the best way to do so.
Unlike undertaking mediation, lawyers representing each person are present throughout Collaborative meetings, and can help to guide negotiations with their advice. Outside parties, such as financial advisers and social workers, can be brought into discussions, in order to discuss the finer details of an agreement, such as the way to explain the divorce to children. If you wish to control your own dealings, without the outside judgment of a court, that may take one side or the other, then Collaborative Law presents this opportunity.
Collaborative Law involves two lawyers, fully trained in the process, representing those involved, so you will still incur legal costs, more so than with mediation. However, lawyers place great importance on arranging face to face meetings, and in comparison to a process of letters and phone calls with a traditional divorce case, meetings are encouraged to be as amicable and understanding as possible. In the interests of ending a marriage as swiftly as possible, you may wish to work within the context of the Collaborative Law Process by giving a full financial disclosure to your partner and their lawyer, so that any asset splitting between yourselves, can be completed in a final settlement.
Rather than facing your partner in a courtroom, Collaborative Law encourages stage by stage negotiations, with meetings documented, and meetings with your lawyer held to arrange points for future discussion. Particularly where children are concerned, negotiations focus on putting them first, and in maintaining a working relationship with your partner in order to carry out your parenting responsibilities. However, if a legal claim is needed to be put before a court, or an injunction, such as a restraining order on a partner is in place, Collaborative Law should not be undertaken.
A Collaborative divorce case focuses on productive and civil discussion, rather than a circle of stress and blame often associated with the end of a marriage. Legal advisers can help you through each meeting, and place no pressure on you with time frames, such as is the case in court hearings. Multiple court appearances increase the cost of divorce cases, and the prolonged process can often be detrimental to a couple's health, as well as their finances.
Collaboration also focuses on helping you to reach the next stage of your life, and should be considered in order to achieve a final and lasting settlement outside of the court process.
Collaborative law is not right for everybody - but for those who suit it, hiring an experienced Collaborative Law attorney can really make the whole divorce much less painful.
