As an alternative to the costly and emotionally difficult process of divorce and family law litigation, parties can choose to proceed collaborativelly. In this process, each party retains their own specially trained collaborative lawyers to help the parties negotiate a resolution of all issues in an open, cooperative manner through “four-way” settlement meetings that both clients and lawyers attend. The parties and lawyers agree that neither can go to court or threaten to go to court and that their mutual goal is settlement.
In the event that either party changes his or her mind and proceeds to court, the lawyers are contractually precluded from continuing their representation and both they and their firms are disqualified.
In Collaborative Law, the parties commit to insulate their children from their disputes and, when necessary, may engage the services of child specialists to help them make decisions in the best interests of their children. The parties may also jointly retain the services of accountants, mental health professionals, and appraisers, to cooperatively help the parties answer difficult financial and emotional questions.
The Collaborative process helps people move forward from the difficulties of divorce in a cooperative manner that is likely to lessen the costs, the pain and the hard feelings so often present when parties divorce.
If you are interested in proceeding in this manner, please contact our office at (724) 283-0077 or visit the CLASP website at www.CLASPLAW.org.