Thinking of Divorce?

  On October 6, 2008, the officers and the Board of Directors of the Brevard County Bar Association created a practice section devoted to the practice of Collaborative Law in Family Law cases as an alternative to the traditional adversarial method of resolving family law cases.  Collaborative Law is a process to resolve family law disputes in which both parties retain separate lawyers whose only job is to help the parties settle their dispute.  It is a process of open communication between the parties and their respective lawyers.  All the parties agree to work together in a collaborative manner.  The process entails informal discussions and joint conferences for purposes of settling the issues.  The parties and their lawyers commit to resolving differences justly and equitably without resorting to court proceedings.  The process uses informal discovery of information, such as the voluntary exchange of documents and the use of agreed neutral experts.  The neutral experts consist of a financial expert and a mental health professional.  The financial expert helps the parties assemble all the financial information and helps each party maximize their economic interests.  The mental health professional helps the parties identify their goals, facilitates their communication abilities, helps them continue in the process in spite of emotional difficulties and focuses the parties on their children so that the best interest of the children may be achieved.  Collaborative lawyers do not use adversarial techniques or tactics.  Collaborative lawyers are specially trained in interest based negotiation which focuses on ascertaining and meeting the parties needs, goals, and desires.  Although the lawyers still advocate for their clients in the collaborative process, there is no posturing, no threatening, and no deception.  The parties are responsible for the outcome.  The collaborative process is designed to achieve each party's best possible outcome under the circumstances.  The collaborative lawyers agree that they will withdraw and not go to court if the case is not settled.  Accordingly, there is no posturing and when the parties are committed to settlement and litigation is not an option, creativity and flexibility in problem-solving becomes the norm.

      A description of the history and details of the process may be obtained at www.collaborativepractice.com.  Collaborative family law practice was first recognized by statute in Texas.  Very useful information about collaborative law can be obtained at www.collablawtexas.com , bearing in mind that it is set out in reference to practice in Texas under their statute.

      In Brevard County the practice of Collaborative Law was officially recognized by the promulgation of Administrative Order No. 07-20-B Amended In RE: DOMESTIC RELATIONS COLLABORATIVE CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE CASES.

     The professionals (lawyers, financial experts, mental health professionals) who practice Collaborative Law are set out at the 18th Judicial Circuit website at FLAG.  Contact any of these professionals for more information or if you wish to utilize this process to resolve your family law issues.