Collaborative Family Law
Collaborative Family Law (CFL) is a specific type of negotiation process where spouses settle their family law issues out of court, with the assistance of specially trained experienced family law lawyers.
Those lawyers collaborate to orchestrate and manage respectful and effective settlement meetings that are built to maximize spousal participation.
The spouses work effectively because they are each supported by a lawyer who is not just working with the other lawyer to run the meeting, but simultaneously providing live support by advising, guiding, informing, and acting as the client’s communication and negotiation coach.
What is discussed, how and when it is discussed, and in what detail, is shaped in a cooperative, safe, positive bargaining environment by the spouses themselves. They take responsibility and ownership for their own marriage, their own lives - and most importantly their own futures. They build the best future that meets everyone's needs and interests, including the needs and interests of any children. They work out their best possible solution as they define it - not as some judge or court defines it.
While similar to mediation, CFL is not the same. In a collaborative process, there is no neutral facilitator in the room. Controlling the meeting and its progress is a duty shared between the collaborative lawyers. They work together to ensure the communication is safe, productive, focussed on solutions, and touches upon and solves all the issues.
Another difference in this process is that your own lawyer is sitting right beside you - ready, willing and able to give you live guidance and legal advice. Some clients may feel that they need that live support. Some clients feel a bit uneasy or alone, or fear making mistakes when bargaining in a mediation environment.
A Collaborative Family Law process is designed to maximize client capacity so they can do their best, and get their best deal with less rancor, anxiety, and expense -- and with more control than the court process. Two prime values of the CFL process are to prioritize the needs of any children involved, and to work to preserving (and even renovate) the spouses' ability to work together cooperatively into the future.
Caspar van Baal is our family law lawyer offering these services.
If the collaborative approach appeals to you, speak to us. You may have doubts that your spouse will be interested, or that he or she can function well in the process. There is no harm in inviting them to consider it as a viable option. The worst thing that can happen is that they say no, and you will end up in another process. We can support you in whatever occurs.
Contact our office to arrange a consultation for more information about this or any of your other process options.
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