The Collaborative Law Movement

Hello everyone,

This month I want to let you know about Collaborative Law.

I did the training to become a Collaborative Lawyer when it was first being introduced into Australia in 2006.

At the time of the first training I was not convinced that we needed Collaborative Law – 6 years later the movement is growing momentum and I have just completed the training again, and now I am firmly of the view that collaboration will be used in more and more family law matters.

Collaborative law has been practiced in the USA and Canada for over 15 years and has grown in popularity both there and in Australia.

Collaborative law is a non-adversarial approach to resolving matters, whereby the parties and their lawyers (and often other professionals such as accountants and psychologists) enter into a formal agreement to focus on settlement rather than litigation.

In fact the parties and the lawyers agree not to go to court at all. What is unusual about this is that you can not get halfway through the negotiation and “throw in the towel” and go to court. If the process breaks down the contract means that you have to start all over again as the lawyer you have used, as well as the other professionals must withdraw.

Other than to talk about the process (or mechanics) the lawyers will not speak to each other in the absence of the parties. Any advice that a party is given is known by the other party, there is no room for tactics and brinkmanship. Each party knows exactly what both their lawyer and their spouses lawyer has said and indeed how much they cost.

The parties resolve matters in a serious of open meetings with their lawyers and the other professionals. When a resolution is reached consent orders or a Binding Financial Agreement is signed.

Collaboration is not for everyone – but if people are honest and willing to negotiate and operate in an open forum it will probably mean the relationship they will have with each other moving forward will be far better than the relationship they will have it they have to “fight” in court.

As always please feel free to comment on this or any other of my blogs. I would also be happy to respond to any questions you may have on this topic. If you have any further queries please feel free to contact me directly at Septimus Jones & Lee on +61 3 9613 6555