Practice Areas

Collaborative Law

Collaborative Law is a specific legal method of proceeding with a family law matter.  The case is still a “divorce,” for example, but the procedure itself is unique.  Collaborative Law consists of a contract between both parties and both attorneys whereby they contract to avoid court, rules of evidence, and rules of procedure.  Under the traditional litigation model, parties use the rules of civil procedure and evidence to obtain discovery documents needed for their case and to present their contested issues to a trier of fact.  In this model, the lawyers must assert whatever legal objections are needed and then place the responses in a specified format.  They must also abide by the court’s scheduling order and deadlines and set hearings to accomplish issues that cannot be agreed upon.  Sometimes, these traditional aspects of a lawsuit can be expensive, and the court-imposed deadlines can be onerous.  Under Collaborative Law, the same procedural rules do not apply.  In a collaborative case, the court removes the case from its docket.  The case is still active, but it is no longer subject to the court’s scheduling order.  This gives the parties the ability to set their own deadlines and rules to create a much more focused, customized divorce process.