Client-Friendly & Clients are in Charge
You are a valuable member of the Collaborative Law team. While the lawyers may have the legal knowledge, you have the knowledge of the facts and circumstances. You are the one who decides the case, along with the other party.
Cooperative
You, your lawyer and the other party and lawyer are all working for the same goal: a fair resolution. Most collaborative cases are resolved in a series of four-way meetings with everyone working together.
No-Court
In Collaborative Law, the threat of going to court is removed. Everyone can focus on settlement. By agreeing to voluntarily provide all relevant information, clients save the time-intensive (and therefore expensive) process of discovery that uses questionnaires, subpoenas, and depositions to reveal the true and relevant facts in each case.
Win-Win
The goal in Collaborative Law is that everyone win. In many situations, this goal leads to creative solutions that would not be possible in court.
Faster
In a court case, there are often long delays caused by the court calendar or waiting for the other side to respond to requests for documents and information. In Collaborative Law, the parties and their attorneys control their calendars.
Healing & Preserving Relationships
In litigation, the win-at-all-costs approach often aggravates feelings that are already hurt. Relationships that were strained break down completely. In custody cases, after waging war against each other, you still have to figure out how to co-parent. In Collaborative Law, each of you is able to talk and share. The old hurts are healed or at least not made worse. After the case is over, you are able to move forward in your relationship.
Less Costly
Legal costs are a function of the amount of attorney time required. In the litigation model, the fact-finding process of locating and valuing property often takes many hours of attorney time....on each side. In Collaborative Law, that information is voluntarily exchanged. Typically, it is not unusual for a contested custody case to cost $25,000 and sometimes even more. A typical collaborative law custody agreement is considerably less. Often even a complex collaborative case can be resolved for under $5,000 each.
