Collaborative Practice

Using an integrated team of trained professionals, the collaborative dispute resolution process is unique. You keep control of the outcome. Your settlement has to be right for you, your family and your goals for the future.

This is for more complex family disputes.

The process is like an extended mediation, with solicitors assisting each party, and a financial neutral involved to help provide financial projections and guidance, and a communication coach to guide the process.

How long does the collaborative process take?

There is more than one meeting in the collaborative process, and it is guided more by the parties than the professionals. It can take as long or as little time as you want it to. You set the pace. If you agree relatively quickly, the process is sped up. If you can’t agree straight away, you can keep discussing and meeting together until an agreement has been reached.

Often there are four or five half-day meetings.

How does the collaborative process work?

In order to reach, not just a settlement, but real resolution, we approach your dispute as an emotional issue with financial and legal consequences. It is a newer approach to achieving a mutually agreed and fair settlement of the issues which arise in family disputes.

By doing it this way, we are able to first help you deal with how you’re feeling and get an informed understanding of your situation before dividing assets and drawing up legal documents. This results in less conflict, a settlement that helps you lead the life you want and better future relationships.

Each party, and professional, signs a participation agreement. This expresses the wishes that you want to resolve the dispute without the need for litigation, and everyone is committed to the process of working together. Any solicitors involved cannot later represent a party in litigation, so they also have a vested interest in the resolution occurring.

The process is also private, so that lengthy evidence is not made public in a court setting, and outcomes are more likely to last because you have worked together to achieve them.