Collaborative Law

Collaborative law has become popular because it is far less adversarial than court, and because it is goal oriented, rather than “winner vs. loser”. As such, it is particularly well suited for family disputes. Despite breakdown of the family, children will always have their mother and father and the children bind the parents with each other forever. Collaborative law is a good way of maximizing your chances of getting along with your soon-to-be-ex after the dust settles.

Collaborative law has as its mantra that court is to be avoided at all costs. This means that if it does not work, the lawyers must resign. So everybody has a stake in success of the collaborative process. Since Court is not an option, there is added flexibility. The black letter of the law does not necessarily need to be applied. For example, a Court must look at an inheritance as an exclusion from a party’s net family property (not to be divided with the other spouse) if it meets the statutory test; but suppose both parties received an inheritance, one party saved his, while the other party spent hers on the family. In collaborative law, the inherent unfairness of not treating the spouse’s inheritances equally will resonate. It is a very different process than court. Not everybody is suited for collaborative law; there needs to be a basic level of trust because there is no umpire calling balls and strikes, which is the role fulfilled by a judge. It is a process well worth considering if both spouses are up to it.