Collaborative Law, also referred to as Collaborative Practice,
is a process for divorcing couples and for couples ending non-marital
relationships and domestic partnerships, who work with trained
professionals as a team to resolve disputes respectfully and
fairly without resorting to court intervention.
The term Collaborative Law or Collaborative Practice encompasses
all of the models that have been developed since attorney Stu
Webb first created the Collaborative Law model in the 1980’s.
The basic collaborative model involves two collaboratively
trained attorneys. However, many parties and professionals
have found that including other collaboratively trained professionals
in the team, such as a child specialist, a financial specialist
and/or mental health coach is the most effective model for
resolving disputes.
Collaborative Law is distinguished from traditional litigation
by these essential core elements which are set forth in the
contractual agreement that the parties and collaborative professionals
enter into at the outset of the case:
• to negotiate a mutually agreeable settlement without using
the court to decide any issue;
• to engage in open communication and information sharing
with full disclosure;
• to search for and create shared solutions that take into
account the important goals and priorities of both parties;
and,
• for all professionals involved in the case to withdraw
if either party leaves the collaborative process and proceeds
to go to court.
Thus, a hallmark of the Collaborative Practice process is
that agreement is reached through discussion, negotiation and
compromise without the financial and emotional cost, aggravation
and uncertainty of adversarial litigation at court.
Ms. Fox and Ms. Bank have both been trained in the collaborative
process and have experience handling collaborative cases. They
are members of several collaborative professional associations.
For more information, consult any of the following websites:
