One aspect of family law that gives me a lot of job satisfaction is helping clients agree a solution to issues that arise and arrangements that need to be made following their separation or divorce. That is why I trained as a collaborative lawyer and here is some more information about the process.
The collaborative process can help you and your partner reach agreement whilst retaining your own team of professionals. Using the collaborative process means that you can avoid going to court.
What is the collaborative process?
Under the collaborative process, each person appoints their own collaboratively trained lawyer and you and your respective lawyers all meet together to work things out face to face. Both of you will have your lawyer by your side throughout the process and so you will have their support and legal advice as you go.
Besides your lawyer, you will have the opportunity, if needed, to work with an independent financial adviser (financial neutral), a family consultant, a child specialist or an accountant, who will provide you with specialist help regarding financial matters and those concerning children, parenting, communication and emotional support if and when you need it. All these professionals will collectively make up your collaborative team.
You and your team sign an agreement that commits you to trying to resolve the issues without going to court and prevents your team from representing you in court if the collaborative process breaks down. This means that everyone is absolutely committed to finding the best solutions by agreement, rather than through court proceedings.
Collaborative law gives you more flexibility in deciding what is important for you and your family; each family is different but the court has to follow set guidelines and procedures when making decisions for you. The collaborative process can offer a much quicker solution than going to court, especially at the moment when there are significant delays at court, meaning that it could take up to 18 months or more to finalise your case.
As communication is through meetings, there are no delays in waiting for replies to emails and letters.
You can time your meetings to fit in with other family events, working around occasions such as weddings, the start of a new school term and so on and ensuring that your family comes first.
Your partner will also need to instruct a collaboratively trained lawyer and we can provide you with details of local lawyers who can help or you can contact Resolution [link] where there is a list of collaboratively trained lawyers.
What happens next?
You meet with Sally who will discuss the process in more detail, find out what your priorities and concerns are, what you think your partner’s priorities and concerns are going to be and what you will say in your anchor statement. Sally then speaks to your partner’s lawyer, having first agreed with you what she will tell them; your solicitors agree on the agenda for the first four way meeting.
The first four-way meeting
There are certain formalities to be dealt with. You, your partner and the lawyers sign up to the process (the participation agreement).
You and your partner exchange anchor statements sharing 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.
If time permits you may also go on to discuss how financial information will be shared and agree on who will bring what financial information to the next meeting.
Subsequent meetings:
- You will deal with you and your partner’s particular priorities and concerns. You might, for instance, work together with other team members, either within the four-way meetings or separately, to resolve specific financial matters, to address issues associated with children or to help you manage the transition. The meetings will enable you to reach agreement on how the finances will be shared or what arrangements need to be made for any children.
- You can have as many meetings as you need to reach an agreement.
The final meeting:
- In the final meeting documents detailing the agreements you have reached will be signed and your lawyers will talk you through anything else that needs to be done to implement those agreements. With finances on divorce, you will need a court order but this can be dealt with by consent without having to go to any court hearings.
How long will it take?
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 and priorities, as these meetings follow agendas set by you and your partner.
Sometimes only a couple of meetings are needed, in other cases four or five. Once an agreement is reached, your lawyers will put it into effect, obtaining a court order, which can be dealt with by consent without any court hearings, where needed.
Some collaborative law terms explained:
Participation agreement
The written agreement that you, your partner, your lawyers and any other professionals involved sign up to before starting the process. It includes your agreement not to go to court, the terms of negotiating collaboratively, confidentiality, privilege and fees. Your lawyer will run through it with you before the first meeting.
Anchor statement
You and your partner exchange an anchor statement right at the beginning of the process. Your anchor statement explains why you chose the collaborative process and what values or principles will “anchor” you to the process when discussions become difficult or emotional. Your lawyers will talk to you about this and help you prepare the statement.
Four-way meetings
These are the meetings with your lawyers and your partners, so called because there will be at last 4 of you in the meeting. If you choose to involve other professionals in any of your meetings, there may be more! Sometimes those professionals may work with you separately outside of the meetings, or simply prepare a report for the meeting.
Financial neutrals
An independent financial adviser who has been accredited to provide advice in a collaborative setting. They give neutral advice that is in the interests of both of you so that you can both evaluate what is best for your family’s future.
For more information, please contact Sally Ward.
