Collaborative Law is a divorce process that can be used in Connecticut. It is based on mediation principles, allowing yet another option for separating or divorcing couples who prefer to stay out of Court and avoid litigation, but desire independent legal representation.
With this process, you and your collaborative attorney would work together, engaging in ongoing discussions and meetings with each other, preparing for and immediately after joint meetings with your spouse and their collaborative attorney. The objectives of these meetings are to achieve individual goals and objectives while being educated about all options for a solution to the divorce. While there is transparency and openness during the negotiation process, this increased transparency in the collaborative process will enable the collaborative attorney to address the your individual wants, needs, fears, and concerns. Most of the work in the collaborative process is conducted in private meetings between the you and your collaborative counsel. During these times, the collaborative attorney (much like the traditional lawyer) works individually with the you to provide financial and legal advice and negotiation strategy. Some of the items discussed include the following:
Financial Inventory: A complete financial inventory is an essential task that must occur before a collaborative attorney provides accurate legal and financial advice on the outcome of the separation or dissolution. Some collaborative attorneys may also have extensive experience in financial divorce, division of retirement benefits, real estate, and tax calculations, etc. Some collaborative attorneys depend on hiring a neutral Certified Divorce Financial Analyst, while others are experts in financial divorce.
The collaborative lawyer is a divorce attorney experienced in reviewing financial information, tax returns, and retirement accounts. They are able to counsel clients in regard to settlement discussions and how finances may look when the process is completed. The role of the collaborative attorney includes helping the client gather all relevant financial documents needed, working with financial information at hand, ascertaining gaps in the information presented and obtaining additional financial disclosure, and preparing court-form financial statements such as Financial Affidavits and Child Support Guidelines.
Individual Legal Advice: The collaborative lawyer is a facilitator, advisor, and advocate for the client, providing legal advice, and acting as a negotiator on behalf of the client. The collaborative attorney will analyze the facts of the individual situation and guided by the relevant case law and statutes, provide the collaborative client with private, personal, confidential, best-case and worst-case scenarios. The collaborative attorney may provide the client with an outline of the divorce law in their state of residence, address misinformation early, and dispel any incorrect assumptions. The role of the collaborative attorney is to inform and educate the client about their specific legal and financial situation based on their individual set of circumstances.
In general, lawyers, including collaborative attorneys, provide divorcing or separating clients with the benefit of their extensive experience in family law, both legal and practical. To be designated as a collaborative attorney, a lawyer must have primarily practiced Family Law for several years and have attended various mediation training programs and Interdisciplinary Collaborative Law training. Furthermore, the collaborative attorney must be accepted as a collaborative practitioner by a group of peers. Many collaborative attorneys have extensive experience with how typical divorce issues have been addressed and resolved in numerous previous cases. The collaborative attorney’s guidance and advice reach far beyond financial and legal advice and will include other guidance such as emotional, personal, and practical support. The attorney will provide neutral and unbiased feedback, offering the individual client a sympathetic yet rational ear for various issues and impasses that may arise during the process.
Separation Agreements and Financial Proposals: The collaborative attorneys draft, review, and revise the Separation Agreement. Upon approval by the Court, said Agreement becomes the divorce decree. This agreement is a contract and will set forth all the terms of the financial divorce. It includes the division of assets and liabilities, addresses support for minor children and spouses, division of all assets and liabilities, allocation of insurance beneficiaries, taxation, etc. and for older children, college educational support, future taxation, and coverage of medical dental vision expenses among many other essential provisions.
Like any significant undertaking, divorce is a process that takes time. For many clients, this is their first divorce or separation, and they depend on the expert guidance of a practitioner versed in divorce and family law. The collaborative attorney has many years of practical, hands-on experience with divorce, separation, custody, and parenting-related issues. They are able to assist and guide the client by assessing the financial, legal, and personal situation. They provide feedback in private, and by evaluating the client’s wishes and goals compared to those of the other spouse, balancing against the legal and financial considerations.
Create a Plan and Problem-Solving: One of the strengths of the collaborative process is that all parties participate in solving the problems of divorce. The collaborative attorney guides clients through negotiation by creating various scenarios for the issues at hand and encourages open discussions and negotiations by promoting a problem-solving approach to each issue. This problem-solving approach occurs both in joint sessions as well as outside of meetings, for the clients to individually and privately understand all their legal interests and the consequences of the options before them. The collaborative attorney participates in this problem-solving both “online” in the joint meetings and “offline” in private with the client.
Conclusion
The collaborative counsel performs all the functions a traditional attorney would offer for their client in private in a litigated case, without the need to advocate for the client legally in Court. With a focus on staying out of the Court and reaching balanced and constructive agreements, collaborative clients have the same legal representation as traditional litigation clients. The benefit for the client lies in negotiating favorable outcomes while staying focused on constructive problem-solving for spouses and their children. The overall collaborative process is less costly than the traditional divorce process and provides greater flexibility and creativity in designing agreements that benefit the entire family. The collaborative clients create their own agreements and financial proposals and are directly involved in the final outcomes. The collaborative client receives independent and individual legal and financial advice during the process. In contrast, with a litigated divorce, the final decisions are made for them after a hearing or trial, and the litigation clients have no control over the final outcome.
by Angela I. Salvari Green, Esq.