Collaborative Law (also called Collaborative Practice, Collaborative Divorce, and Collaborative Family Law) is a family law process enabling couples who have decided to separate or end their marriage to work with their lawyers and, on occasion, other family professionals in order to avoid the uncertain outcome of Court and to achieve a settlement that best meets the specific needs of both parties and their children without the underlying threat of contested litigation. The voluntary process is initiated when the couple signs a contract (the Participation Agreement ), binding each other to the process and disqualifying their respective lawyer's right to represent either one in any future family related litigation.

The collaborative process can be used to facilitate a broad range of other family issues, including disputes between parents and the drawing up of pre and post-marital contracts. The traditional method of drawing up pre-marital contracts is oppositional, and many couples prefer to begin their married life on a better footing where documents are drawn up consensually and together.

This approach to conflict resolution was created in 1990 by a Minnesota family lawyer Stuart Webb, who saw that traditional litigation was not always helpful to parties and their families, and often was damaging. Since 1990, the Collaborative Law movement has spread rapidly to most of the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia. Per the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals ("IACP"), more than 22,000 lawyers have been trained in Collaborative Law worldwide, with collaborative practitioners in at least 46 states. In some localities, Collaborative Law has become the predominant method for resolving divorce, co-habitation and other family disputes. More than 1,250 lawyers have completed their training in England where collaborative law was launched in 2003.

In a Collaborative Law case, the parties strive to reach a mutually acceptable, interest-based settlement through a series of meetings, sometimes called joint sessions, between the two parties and their lawyers, and sometimes other neutral experts. Ultimately, each party will judge, by him- or herself, whether the terms of the agreement are "fair" to them. The primary focus of the four-way meetings or joint sessions is to identify the priorities, goals, needs and interests of the parties, and help them progress towards and create a settlement that is consistent with their priorities, goals, needs, and interests. The parties make their own decisions based on their own standards. Some have critiqued this aspect of Collaborative Law (and mediation), believing that court processes are better suited towards protecting rights than voluntary dispute resolution processes. However, most lawyers involved in the divorce process agree that the parties can often make better decisions about their children and their families than a judge.

There is a parallel between Collaborative Family Law and mediation, in that both are facilitative processes. However, In Collaborative Law the parties agree from the beginning of the dispute not to go to court. Mediation is often ordered during the course of the litigation process. Further, in Collaborative Law, the parties are fully informed about the law and the consequences of various options, and their advocates facilitate the negotiations. In mediation, the mediator is a neutral third party who doesn't represent or advise either side.

The growth of the collaborative process in England and Wales has been encouraged by both the judiciary and the family lawyers organisation, Resolution. In an address to London family lawyers in October 2009, the newly appointed Supreme Court Justice, Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore became the first member of the Supreme Court to publicly endorse Collaborative Law and called for its extension to other areas. Previously, in October 2008 the Hon. Mr Justice Coleridge, a High Court Judge of the Family Division, had promised that collaborative agreements would be fast tracked in the High Court of England and Wales.

Browell Smith & Co are experts in Collaborative Law. Click here to view details of Collaborative Law in the North East of England.

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