How did Collaborative Law come About?
Collaborative Law was coined and developed in the early 1990's, by Stuart G. Webb, an Attorney and Family Law Practitioner in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who wanted to come up with a different way to structure the family law practice, which would focus entirely on "collaboration" between divorcing parties in order to eliminate the frustration, distress, and cost that would occur in litigation.

What is Collaborative Law?
Collaborative Law is a dispute resolution model that is premised on all participants agreeing to work together respectfully, honestly, and in good faith to try to find "win-win" solutions in regards to the needs of both parties.

Both parties to the dispute retain separate, specially-trained lawyers whose primary task is to help the two parties settle the dispute. If the lawyers do not succeed in helping the clients resolve the problem, the lawyers will withdraw and can never under in any circumstance represent either client against the other if matters end up in court.

What are some Factors that make Collaborative Law a Success?
The Statistics state that more than 90% of all divorce cases are resolved without a trial. However, what this statistic does not state is that many of these settlements are reached at the doorsteps of the courthouse under conditions of considerable tension and anxiety after much money has been spent, and a great deal of emotional damage has already taken place.

Collaborative Law was designed where an absolute commitment to settlement is the sole agenda and such that the distress and heartache that goes along with pre trial discovery methods and courtroom trials can be avoided.

Each side has quality legal advice from their lawyers and advocacy built in at all times during the process. The Collaborative Law process is different than that of the mediation process where a "neutral" third party attempts to monitor the dispute and is often trapped in a situation that makes them appear as though they are siding with one party over the other if one becomes unreasonable.

What separates Collaborative Law from every other dispute resolution process is Collaborative Law puts two lawyers in the same room pulling in the same direction to solve the same list of problems. As Collaborative Lawyer Pauline H. Tesler put it, "I cannot succeed as a Collaborative Lawyer unless I also can find solutions to the other party's problems that my client finds satisfactory."

Will Collaborative Law work for me?
Certainly, Collaborative Law will not work in every case. After all, it takes two to tango and it takes two willing participants to effectively use the Collaborative Law process. However, in the cases where Collaborative Law has been used, even if reluctantly, there have been more rapid settlements at a fraction of the normal cost associated with divorce.

The following added resources are provided as recommended readings, which complement many of the questions addressed above in regards to Collaborative Law. I chose to list below the resources that I found to be the most informative and educational in nature that I feel will benefit others in understanding the "Collaborative Law" model and process.

FIRST, in SECTION 1, a very well written article that describes in detail the history and development of the Collaborative Law.

SECOND, in SECTION 2, are added resources that I believe will help in further understanding What Collaborative Law is, How it works, and Why it is so effective.

THIRD, in SECTION 3, are additional resources to help generally understand when Collaborative Law is effective, and when it is not. Collaborative Law is based on the premise that the two parents will volunteer and are willing to divulge and disclose information, negotiate, and communicate in "good faith" for the better interest of their child. If one parent does not volunteer or is not willing to communicate in "good faith" then the Collaborative Law process breaks down and will NOT work.

NOTE: I would like to bring to your attention, that in my research, I found very little information from parents who have participated in the Collaborative Law or Collaborative Divorce process. Therefore, to get a better understanding of the effectiveness of Collaborative Law from a parents prespective, if you or someone you know has participated in Collaborative Law, we would like to encourage you to email us and tell us your story. To contact us and send us an email with your Collaborative Law story click here.