Why Collaborative Practice?

What we learn from years of experience in Family Law is that most clients don’t want to go Court and most clients don’t want an ugly bitter separation with their ex-partner.  They want to be more amicable, with a view to keep their relationship with their ex-partner as peaceful and cooperative as possible, especially when children are involved.

Collaborative Practice is a much nicer process.  It is completely different way of lawyering, where the whole purpose of it is, to assist parties, in a team environment, to resolve their matter, with the intention of preserving relationships and avoiding the need to commence proceedings.

How does Collaborative Practice do that?

1. Parties enter into a Participation Agreement at the start of the process and part of the Agreement is that the parties make a commitment that they do not intend to go to Court.

2. There is a high settlement in resolving matters through Collaborative Practice.

3. The process is less confrontational than a Court room setting

• The Process is nicer because the discussions take place through a number of Meetings, where Agendas are set as to what the parties will discuss.  This is different from the parties being against each other in a Court room environment.  It occurs in a more relaxed setting.
• The parties will each need to find lawyers that are both Collaboratively trained.  They will contact each other and agree on what Professionals are required to assist the matters to resolve including the choice of proposed Coach/ Facilitator.

4. You work with your ex-partner collaboratively as if you are part of ‘a Team’ rather than against each other in a traditional legal setting.

• The difference with collaborative practice is that the parties, each of their lawyers, the Coach/ Facilitator and any professionals that the parties jointly engage are all working together with a common goal; to resolve the parties’ family law matter, in a way that meets each of the parties’ interests.  
• We are able to, jointly, as a team, discuss engaging professionals who are neutral/ independent and who are working for both parties in considering the whole family.

5. The Discussions are Open, Honest and Transparent.

• One of the benefits of Collaborative practice is that there is a real transparency in the process that you do not get from an Adversarial process.
• There is a requirement that the parties receive advice about their matter, in the presence of the other party.
• This takes away from concerns about distrust, lack of transparency, concerns about hidden agendas that often arise in a normal traditional setting.  It is commonly, the lack of trust and transparency that will often lead to difficulties resolving disputes.
• This is very different approach from traditional cases, because in traditional family law cases, the advice that you receive from your solicitor, is protected from being discovered because of traditional legal principles of ‘legal professional privilege’: the parties are prohibited from finding out the advice the other party is receiving.
• By removing legal professional privilege, in this instance, the process becomes much more transparent because each of the parties will hear the advice that their ex-partner is receiving from their legal team, as there is requirement that it occur in the presence of the other party.

6. Collaborative practice is interest based, Traditional Family Law Practice is Court Outcome based

• The Benefits of Collaborative practice is that, as a team, the parties work on considering each of the parties’ interests in their family law matter.  Each party can have varying interests and needs.   Many clients focus on wanting an outcome that is fair, that is quick, that avoids court and that leaves their relationship with the other spouse intact.  These are goals that are difficult to achieve through a Court room.

• In Collaborative Practice matters, the parties are focussing  on the parties’ common and competing interests; whether it is based on trying to resolve a parenting agreement or whether it’s trying to resolve financial matters.

• The aim is to avoid discussions that focus on ‘positions’ or ‘court based outcomes’ and trying to find a workable arrangement that considers everyone’s interests.

7. Collaborative practice can deal with matters that are ‘non-legal’ and that often get in the way of resolution

• Another benefit of Collaborative Practice is that the process is better equipped to deal with aspects that are relevant to the parties’ family situation but are outside of the legal aspects of their case.
• For example, there are often issues, such as relationship issues or emotional issues that provide obstacles to a party’s ability to resolve a matter.  The Coach/Facilitator is able to identify and work on those issues outside of the Lawyer group.
• The parties can, if they like, jointly employ professionals that deal with those issues in a meaningful context.  For example, if there was a need for a party to receive counselling because they were not accepting of the separation, or for the family to receive family counselling.
• There might be a situation where one of the parties is less financially astute than the other.  The Coach may suggest that it would help if a Financial Neutral was given a role to educate the spouse on the financial aspects of the parties’ financial affairs.  This could then help that spouse be more involved in the process.

8. The parties can jointly employee Independent/ Neutral professionals to assist with providing both parties advice at the same time to assist the resolution.

• The parties can jointly employ Independent/Neutral professionals to assist with providing both parties advice to assist the resolution.  
• Usually, the fact that a person is independent/neutral, then the parties are more likely to appreciate and listen to the advice of that Expert. 
• When that Professional is neutral the experts have no vested interest in the outcome. 

Hear from the Experts

These are the main advantages of collaborative practice. If you like to learn more information in regards to how it works, feel free to watch the video ‘Benefits of Callaborative Family Law’ here. This is presented by four members of the Southern Sydney Collaborative Professionals where they discuss the advantages of collaborative practice and how it works in a family law setting.

At Solari and Stock, our team of Family Law Solicitors are all Collaboratively Trained Lawyers, if you have any questions regarding your current situation please for free to contact us on 8525 2700 or click here to request an appointment.

Article by Nicole Quirk

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