OLLABORATIVE LAW
OLLABORATIVE LAW
Collaborative
Family Law was created in the early 1990's primarily in response to the
destructive impact of divorce litigation on divorcing families. It is a
non-adversarial process which is focused on getting parties who are
involved in family law disputes from dispute to resolution with as
little financial and emotional damage as possible, while securing an
agreement which reflects their true interests.
This is an entirely new model of alternative dispute resolution in Texas. The last 15 years have seen a growing body of evidence suggesting that more and more married couples, given a safe legal environment within which to work, want, and are uniquely qualified to fashion their own solutions to the issues presented by the break up in their relationship, without judicial intervention.
Collaborative Law seeks to create an environment in which the parties, with the aid of their attorneys, can address the issues presented as problems to be solved, rather than contests to be won. Essential to that process is elimination of the threat, "if you don't agree, we can just let the Judge decide". This is accomplished by a written "four way" agreement, binding the parties and their attorneys to the proposition that the consequence of failure to reach some solution to all issues presented is the abandonment of the process. Such abandonment means the withdrawal of the attorneys from any further involvement beyond an orderly transition of the matter to new counsel, who will presumably, then prepare the case for trial in the conventional adversarial manner. The resulting atmosphere is one in which the parties and their attorney have the same conscious incentives to reach a negotiated settlement as well as the same disincentives for failure.
OMMITTING TO THE SPIRIT OF THE PROCESS
The
attorneys should discuss at length with the parties the importance of
positive, respectful communication, and the need to avoid engaging in
unnecessary discussions of past events. The attorneys should teach the
parties some basic of good communication, such as listening carefully,
reflecting back the other party's statements so that they will feel
"heard", not interrupting, taking time to cool off, etc. The parties
need to commit to these concepts and agree that anyone else in the
group may hold them accountable for this commitment. Letting the
clients reconfirm verbally the reasons they chose this process is an
excellent way to commit them to it.
| 6.603. Collaborative Law. | |||||||||||||||||
| (a) | On a written agreement of the parties and their attorneys, a dissolution of marriage proceeding may be conducted under collaborative law procedures. | ||||||||||||||||
| (b) | Collaborative law is a procedure in which the parties and their counsel agree in writing to use their best efforts and make a good faith attempt to resolve their dissolution of marriage dispute on an agreed basis without resorting to judicial intervention except to have the court approve the settlement, make the legal pronouncements, and sign the order required by law to effectuate the agreement of the parties as the court determines appropriate. The parties' counsel may not serve as litigation counsel except to ask the court to approve the settlement agreement. | ||||||||||||||||
| (c) | A collaborative law agreement must include provisions for: | ||||||||||||||||
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EBSITES DEALING WITH COLLABORATIVE LAW
www.smith-lawfirm.com/medCBA.html
www.collaborativeattorneys.com
www.jacksonpage.com/aboutcp.html
www.divorcesource.com/info/collaborativelaw/collaborativelaw.shtml
www.divorcehelp.com/colldiv.html