Collaborative Law

Collaborative law is a relatively new negotiating forum for parties who hope to reach a negotiated settlement. Each party attends a series of meetings accompanied by their legal representatives with discussions taking place with a view to the parties reaching agreement on issues requiring to be resolved, including issues relative to any children and any financial matters.

Collaborative law differs from mediation in that each party has their own legal representative present. In mediation one independent and impartial third party facilities discussions between parties direct. In mediation, unlike in the collaborative law process, neither party has the support of their own solicitor to act to secure their top priorities first and foremost.

With collaborative law, if parties cannot reach agreement on all matters and they wish to move forward to litigation, both legal representatives must step down and the parties require to obtain new legal representation in order to take matters to the Court. This in itself as a sanction is designed to encourage all of those involved in the collaborative process to try to reach agreement on all outstanding issues.