Collaborative Family Law.
Working Together.
A better way to separate.
Collaborative Family Law
Work together with your ex-partner, your lawyers and other professionals to settle Family Law parenting and property without going to Court.
You and your ex-partner each have a specially trained Collaborative Family Lawyer and both Lawyers work with you as a team, talking about the things that matter to the two of you. In a series of 2 to 5 meetings, we help you to listen to each other and reach mutually acceptable agreements in a respectful and amicable way. You can make decisions about your future parenting arrangements, and on the best way to divide your property. The agreements reached are then filed with the Court as Consent Orders.
https://www.collaborativeaustralia.com.au/
Collaborative Law: The Details
Teamwork.
You and your lawyer work together as a team with the other lawyer and your ex, to create the best possible solutions for your circumstances.
We join other Collaborative professionals to the team as needed, such as wealth advisors, tax consultants, and child-focused psychologists.
The ultimate goal is to discuss what matters to you in a respectful solution-focused way, by:
identifying the issues,
generating options,
discussing options
finding a solution.
Unlike traditional adversarial family law, Collaborative Law is about listening to what is important for you and your ex-partner, sharing information and working together as a team to help you both achieve your goals.
Participation Agreement.
The Participation Agreement is signed by all participants, including lawyers and clients, and has a few important features:
1. a commitment not to litigate.
2. to be open and transparent,
3. to make full disclosure.
4. to focus on solving issues arising from the relationship breakdown, including but not limited to legal issues
5. to focus on the goals and interests of the separating couple.
The Meetings.
There is lots of information gathering and preparation for the joint meetings. There are also pre-meeting discussions, such as client and lawyer discussions, lawyer to lawyer discussions and discussions with other professionals that may be needed.
We aim for 3 joint meetings, each with an agreed agenda and in these meetings, we focus on respectful communication, option generation and reaching agreements that meet the individual needs of the parties.
In between the team meetings, everyone (you, your ex-partner, the professionals in the team), share in gathering the information needed for the next meeting.
Each team meeting has an agenda and minutes of the meeting are circulated after each meeting.
The role of your lawyer is to support and advise you and also to work together with the other lawyer, your ex-partner and other professionals that you choose.
The Results.
Collaborative Law is about finding the best possible solutions for the individual needs of each client.
Let's be realistic. We can't materialise wealth, but by understanding what you each need, we can work together to get great results. Working collaboratively with financial and child-focused professionals, your team helps you get closer to your goals.
Once an agreement is reached, consent orders detailing that agreement are filed with the Court.