The breakdown of a relationship is one of the most emotional and stressful times you may experience in life. Traditionally, you and your ex partner would instruct a solicitor to negotiate an agreement on your behalf through correspondence. However, there are some alternative ways to resolve the issues surrounding separation, which can be more amicable, and sometimes cheaper, which could help ease the pain of your relationship breakdown.
One of the alternative ways of resolving disputes on separation is a process called Collaborative Law. Instead of negotiations taking place via solicitor's correspondence or though the courts, the process involves a series of meetings between the couple and their solicitors, who are all committed to working together to reach an agreement.
The collaborative process is not suitable for everyone. For the process to work, you need to have a genuine desire to make it work and a willingness to be open and honest. The meetings are conducted in a relaxed and informal manner with the goal of maintaining mutual respect, which can help with future communications between you and your ex partner, which can be particularly important if you have children.
At the start of the collaborative process, you and your lawyers are required to sign a Participation Agreement which commits all parties to try and resolve the issues without going to court. If an agreement cannot be reached, and court proceedings do become necessary, your lawyers could no longer act on your behalf. This means that everyone involved, including your lawyers, have an incentive to work hard in reaching an agreement. In fact, the collaborative process has a very high success rate.
The collaborative law process may have many benefits to you. You and your ex partner both have your own lawyer so you can understand your legal position, but you have much more control over the process. You can set the agenda of each meeting, which means you can talk about the issues that matter most to you, and you also set the pace of the process, so meetings can take place at a convenient time for you and your ex partner. You may also seek assistance from other experts who assist in family breakdown, for example, financial advisors can provide financial support and guidance and a family consultant can provide emotional support to you and your children. Any experts involved in the process will also be collaboratively trained and equally as committed to the process working as you are.
Attwells' family lawyer, Samantha Gray, is a member of Resolution which means she is committed to helping clients resolve matters as amicably as possible. Samantha Gray is also a Resolution trained Collaborative Lawyer who can help separating couples work together to achieve a better outcome for all involved.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
