Frequently Asked Questions

Litigation-based negotiations and agreements are often restricted by formulas, rules of thumb, governing powers and ultimatums. Within court-based approaches, decisions are made by a third party judge who may have limited knowledge of or may not consider all the needs and goals of the parties involved. This can often serve to increase conflict and create resentments that can be very upsetting, long-lasting, and make co-parenting very difficult. In addition, conflict between the parties often increases the time to reach a final resolution

For couples involved in separation/divorce, an Interspousal Contract and Separation Agreement (“Agreement”) is required, alternatively the court decides how assets will be divided and as applicable determines parenting arrangements.   While still providing legal guidance to protect their respective client’s interests, collaboratively-trained lawyers encourage creative solutions and work together to help their client’s reach agreement without the necessity of involving a judge.  By design, the collaborative process ensures that the unique needs and goals of the parties involved are taken into account and thus offers the parties more control in both process and outcome than litigation approaches.

There is no requirement for Mediators to also be lawyers, however even when qualified Mediators are lawyers, due to their neutral role in the mediation process, they cannot advocate for or provide legal advice to either party. As such, typically each party will need to employ a lawyer to finalize agreements reached through the mediation process

In contrast with other options, the Collaborative Process can be more cost-efficient and can add value. For example, the Collaborative Process eliminates the emotional and financial costs of multiple court appearances. Clients also save the money that might be otherwise spent on multiple experts to prepare documents and exhibits for use in court, or to conduct discoveries and issue subpoenas.

More detailed information and cost ranges for each of the other divorce and separation process options can be found on the Comparison Chart.

In addition to collaboratively-trained lawyers, as needed, other interdisciplinary professionals who may form part of the collaborative team include: divorce/separation coaches (who are collaboratively-trained mental health professionals), child specialists (who bring forward the ‘voice of the children’ impacted by divorce or separation) and/or financial professionals (who help plan a fair and balanced distribution of your assets for the long term security of the whole family.

All collaborative professionals work as a team (on an ‘as required’ basis) to address client needs and goals, which otherwise would need to be addressed by lawyers alone who may not have the same degree of expertise in a particular area and often have a higher hourly rate than other collaboratively-trained professionals. Learn more about the collaborative team professionals.

Characteristics that may be a good fit with Collaborative Practice include:

• You have so much conflict that it’s hard to imagine how you could reach agreement.
• You see the value in getting guidance and support for your emotions, finances, co-parenting and children. You want to avoid resolving disputes in an adversarial manner.
• Rather than having a judge (who doesn’t know you or your unique needs) make decisions about you and your family, you would rather work towards sorting out problems with the help of skilled collaborative professional(s).
• You’re willing to consider creative solutions to issues and problems.
• It’s important for you and your spouse to minimize conflict and to have a good working relationship with your spouse/partner in the future, particularly if there are children involved.
• You want the well-being and needs of your children to be considered throughout the divorce/separation process as well as in the future.
• You want to feel a sense of control in the process and outcome. Your goal is to have a civilized, respectful resolution of the issues. Within the Collaborative Process, guided by their respective lawyers (and when applicable other members of a collaborative team), clients agree to work toward resolving their issues without going to or making threats to go to Court.