Collaborative law and reaching agreement
Like family mediation, collaborative law offers a non-confrontational approach to reaching an agreement on key decisions arising from divorce, separation or dissolution of your civil partnership. It provides a constructive way of bridging the gap, avoiding the stress and costs associated with going to court.
It has the additional benefit that each person receives legal advice during all discussions as they are supported by their collaboratively trained solicitors throughout the process.
Both mediation and collaborative law are approaches to dispute resolution which can help you to build a better framework for communications. This is particularly valuable if you have children and wish to co-parent in a positive way in the future.
With a collaborative approach to seeking an agreement, you remain in control, proceed at a pace to suit you and arrange meetings at your convenience. The aim is to reach a fair settlement which considers the needs of your whole family and avoids the uncertainty, hostility and unpleasantness that can result from allowing the court to decide issues relating to your children, property or finances.
Stages to reaching agreement with collaborative law
- Stage 1 – Initial contact: You can either call us yourself, or you might be referred if your solicitor does not offer collaborative law. You and your partner will each need to speak to your solicitor separately before arranging an initial meeting.
- Stage 2 – Initial meeting: At the outset, you each identify what is important to you and, together with your respective lawyers, sign a participation agreement which sets out your goals and aspirations, committing you all to resolving issues without going to court.
- Stage 3: Collaborative meetings: All negotiations take place in a series of face-to-face meetings at which you can ask for clarification on any points. There are generally no letters between lawyers, so less chance of misinterpretation or mistrust which can lead to unnecessary acrimony.
- Stage 4 – Formal agreement: Once you reach an agreement, your lawyers will prepare a settlement agreement which, if necessary, they’ll submit to the court for approval.
Speak to our collaborative lawyers
Our lawyers are very experienced in helping couples and families to reach agreement on a range of issues. The collaborative approach can be especially appealing to professionals and entrepreneurs who are used to participating in private and pragmatic business negotiations.
Our offices are close to Liverpool Street station, so if you both work in the City of London, you can fit in a collaborative meeting around work commitments to help the process to run smoothly.
Contact us to explore whether collaborative law could be right for you.