The Fundamentals of Collaborative Family Law

By Peter Sullivan


Collaborative family law is the method of resolving family issues outside of court. For example, divorce or child custody cases. Although, there are more types of examples for this process. The key to success with collaborative family law is that the parties can resolve conflict by talking with their lawyers and not going into court.

Collaborative family law is a method of certainty instead of the difficulties of court proceedings which revolve around third parties. In Collaborative family law each party represents themselves and the other person involved.

Lawyers in these cases will instruct their clients accordingly during the process.The object is to reach an agreement that both parties are satisfied with outside of court. All proceedings are kept confidential and cannot be used in court if a court case is needed if an amicable agreement cannot be met.

How the method of collaborative family law works

To begin the process each party contacts their lawyers and relates upon them their wishes and desires for what they want out of the case. The lawyers will then communicate with the attorney of the other party and express these needs succinctly in relation to their own client. At the onset, each party signs a document expressing their agreement to settle this out of court. Then each party discusses their hopes for what they would like from the process and set up future meetings together. Also, this is an opportunity for financial matters to be discussed amongst both parties involved. Future meetings revolve around satisfying each party so everyone is happy and getting what they want from the process. The most essential part is what is best for the children or child involved. The last meeting will conclude with both parties in agreement with one another and a firm understanding of the roles to be done by each party involved.

The length of the proceedings

The time frame is solely dependent on the parties involved. It can be immensely faster than court since you are no longer tied to the bureaucratic method of the court system or it can be as slow as the court system process if the parties involved cannot reach an amicable conclusion.

The benefits of collaborative family law

There are many advantages for using collaborative family law instead of courts. For example, each party maintains power and control of the situation at any given time. Children are always at the center of every decision and the aim is for honesty and amicability between both parties. Typically, these situations are less stressful than court cases. It can also be a much more economic choice because you don't have the court costs.

Why collaborative family law is a negative thing

Collaborative family law is not used for drug abuse cases or family violence cases. It can also be very time consuming if each party is disorganized and cannot resolve their issues in a timely fashion. However, good time management skills can sort this out from the beginning and should be a top priority of the proceedings.

The costs of collaborative family law

Each case is different. Therefore each client must discuss with their lawyer the fee for their case. No case should be more than lb15,000 for both parties in the proceedings.




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