Collaborative practice is a new way of resolving family law matters including divorce, separation and parenting disputes.
Both you and your former partner work with specially trained collaborative lawyers. You will each receive legal advice and guidance and together with your lawyers discuss and resolve issues through face to face meetings.
The process can also include other professionals including counsellors, mediators and financial specialists to help you reach agreement.
Provided everybody enters the process in good faith this process is faster and less acrimonious than court proceedings.
Everybody signs an agreement disqualifying your collaborative lawyers from representing you at court if the collaborative process breaks down. Neither the lawyers nor their respective firms can then act for you in any court based proceedings and if agreement could not be reached by this method you would need to instruct new lawyers to proceed to court.
The advantages of collaborative law are that you can set your own agenda according to what matters most to you and your family. You won’t risk key decisions about your future being made by a complete stranger – a Judge. Because you are not waiting for dates from the court you can work at your own pace and resolve matters more quickly but you will still have a duty to provide full and frank disclosure of all assets where finance and property is an issue so that negotiations can be honest and open.
Collaborative practice is a good option for people who wish to avoid the uncertainties of the court base system. It allows you to benefit from expert legal advice without risking the threat of court action during negotiations. Both you and your former partner and your respective lawyers will work together to find the best solutions.
You set the agenda so you do not feel as if you are being pulled along a legal conveyor belt.
Before you commence a permanent relationship, be it as a married couple, civil partners or cohabitees you have the opportunity to plan with your partner what should happen if the worst comes to the worst and your relationship does not last. It is often sensible to discuss these matters with your partner at the outset although it may be seen as strange to be thinking at this stage in the relationship of what will happen if the relationship should fail. However it may be easier to deal with these issues rationally when you are both on good terms rather than trying to deal with them when things have gone wrong and emotions are running high.
If you are planning to live with somebody as a cohabitee you need to consider entering into a “living together agreement” which will set out each partner’s responsibilities of household during the course of the relationship and what will happen if things go wrong. This may include decisions about buying or renting property, paying household bills, arrangements for any children that there may be in the future or indeed what will happen in relation to any children from previous relationships. The document will include a record of what will happen in relation to the division of assets and liabilities in the event that the relationship breaks down. It is often more difficult and more costly to resolve these issues at the end of a relationship than at the beginning.
If you are contemplating marriage then you may wish to consider signing a pre-nuptial agreement. While these are technically not valid in English law there are recent cases which establish that the content of pre-nuptial agreements can be taken into account by a court when looking at what should happen in the event of any subsequent divorce. It is important that if you are considering entering into a pre-nuptial agreement that this is done well in advance of any marriage, so if you are considering getting married you need to speak to your Solicitor as soon as possible to take advice early on. Again, it is often cheaper and less traumatic to resolve these issues at the outset of a relationship than try to do so when a relationship has turned sour.
Civil Partnerships can be dissolved and financial arrangements made on the basis on the same principals as for married couples. Our family team would be delighted to assist with any enquiries you may have.
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