How does it Work?

The Collaborative Law Process compared to the traditional adversary process

	Request for information In Collaborative Law All parties provide an open, honest exchange of information. Neither party takes advantage of the other or of the miscalculations or inadvertent mistakes of others but instead identifies and corrects them.
	Team Approach Parties are encouraged to use a communication facilitator, financial specialist, child specialist as needed, to help ensure a successful result and to reduce attorney's fees.
	Custody In Collaborative Law Both parties insulate their children from their disputes and, should custody be at issue, seek to avoid the professional evaluation process, except as consultation to the collaborative process.
	Experts In Collaborative Law Both parties are encouraged to use joint accountants, therapists, appraisers and other consultants instead of adversarial experts. The experts understand that their opinion is to be neutral, not favoring one side over the other.
	Negotiations In Collaborative Law A respectful, creative effort to meet the legitimate needs of both spouses replaces tactical bargaining backed by threats of litigation.
	Commitment to Settlement In Collaborative Law The attorneys must guide the process to settlement or withdraw from further participation, unlike adversarial attorneys. The attorneys, in effect, share the risk of failure as well as their clients, something not true in conventional representation. Even though the parties may have very different positions, they must be committed to settlement for the process to work.

To see a sample copy of the participation agreement, click here.

This page last modified 2/12/08