Collaborative Law

You and your spouse or partner, have the ability and power to divorce or separate with integrity and dignity. You have the ability to act in ways that will preserve what remains of the good feeling between you, in a way that will benefit you, in particular your children and your extended family and friends.

If this is what you want to achieve from what is already a very stressful time, then read on.

The collaborative family law process of dispute resolution is a relatively new way of dealing with family disputes. Each person appoints their own collaborative solicitor, but instead of conducting negotiations between you and your partner by letter or phone you, your partner and the solicitors meet together to work things out face to face.

Each of you will have your solicitor by your side throughout the entire process and therefore you will benefit from legal advice as you go. The aim of collaborative law is to resolve family disputes without going to court and with dignity and respect.

How does the collaborative process work?

You and your partner will meet with your respective solicitors, discussed the different options and processes available for dispute resolution and decide whether the collaborative process is for you.

You will both meet individually with your separate solicitors to talk about what to expect in the collaborative meetings which are usually referred to as 'four way' meetings. You and your solicitor will discuss what you both need to do in order to prepare for the first 'four way' meeting. The process will generally be as follows:

• Your solicitor and your partner's solicitor will speak to each other either face to face or over the phone in order to plan for your first meeting.
• At the first four way meeting the solicitors will make sure that you both understand that you are making a commitment to working out an agreement without going to court and you will all four sign an agreement to this effect. (called the participation agreement)
• You and your partner will be invited to share your own objectives in choosing this process and you will all plan the agenda for the next meeting. This will depend on your own individual circumstances but might typically include a discussion about how the children are responding to the separation and may also go on to discuss how financial information will be shared and agree on who will bring what financial information to the next meet
• Subsequent meetings will deal with you and your partner's particular priorities, issues and concerns.
• Other professionals such as specialists in pensions and financial planning or people trained to assist you and others to assist the children in understanding and coping with the changes that your divorce or separation will bring to their lives and to you are available and common to the process if needed.
• The meetings will enable you to reach agreement on how the finances will be shared and or what arrangements need to be made for any children
• In the final meeting documents detailing the agreements you have reached will be signed and your solicitor will talk you through anything else that needs to be done in order to implement those agreements. Sometimes a firm timetable for implementation will not be possible, for instance, if the family house needs to be sold.
• The agreed terms are usually recorded in a court order as in the traditional method.

One of the benefits of the collaborative process is that it's not driven by a timetable imposed by the court. So to a large extent the process can be built around your family's individual timetable, priorities and needs.

We have a trained collaborative solicitor available to do this type of dispute resolution, full details of the trained collaborative solicitors can be found on the Resolution website at www.resolution.org there is also a local worcestershire site at www.amicabledivorce.co.uk and in Gloucestershire at www.resolution.org.uk/gloucestershire

Also for a list of the Gloucestershire Collaborative lawyers and a voucher, contact John Sherahilo at jis@tandblawt.co.uk also see below

The articles on legal topics published in these pages are for interest only and are necessarily general in their terms. You should not act (or refrain from acting) on the basis of the information given without specific advice, as the principles and laws concerned may change, and their application will vary according to the particular circumstances.