What is Collaborative Family Law? ("CFL")
Collaboration means to cooperate with another person for the same goal. It can also mean cooperation with the enemy. CFL combines these two meanings into a process designed to help spouses or partners facing the trauma of separation and divorce without adversarial litigation.
Face to Face communication: CFL participants agree to engage in honest, blameless, face-to-face communication with each other during four-way meetings with their lawyers. They each get a chance to describe the situation, share information, and develop options to resolve their problems. Using those options, participants work to reach an outcome that best serves each of them and their family.
Role of the lawyers: In CFL, each participant has their own lawyer. The lawyers commit to helping the parties communicate with each other openly, effectively and in good faith. Each lawyer commits to representing his or her client only through the CFL process. Neither lawyer will represent their client in court against the other party. As a consequence of this commitment, the role of the participants' lawyer is different than in the normal adversarial family law case.
Voluntary: The CFL process is voluntary. Settlement is reached only with the agreement of both parties.
For more information about collaborative law, please consult with the IACP (International Academy of Collaborative Professionals) on their website:
www.collaborativepractice.com Click here to listen to interview of Ms. Matthews discussing Collaborative Family Law:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/P3PowerBoost/2008/01/16/Gabriela-Mathews