| Is Collaborative Law the best choice for me? It isn’t for every client (or every lawyer), but it is worth considering if some or all of these are true for you: |
|
| You want a civilized, respectful resolution of the issues. |
| You would like to keep open the possibility of friendship with your partner down the road. |
| You will be co-parenting children together and you want the best co-parenting relationship possible. |
| You want to protect your children from the harm associated with litigated dispute resolution between parents. |
| You and your partner have a circle of friends or extended family in common that you both want to remain connected to. |
| You have ethical or spiritual beliefs that place high value on taking personal responsibility for handling conflicts with integrity. |
| You value privacy in your personal affairs and do not want details of your problems to be available in the public court record. |
|
| You value control and autonomous decision making and do not want to hand over decisions about restructuring your financial and/or child-rearing arrangements to a stranger (i.e., a judge). |
| You recognize the restricted range of outcomes and "rough justice" generally available in the public court system, and want a more creative and individualized range of choices available to you and your spouse or partner for resolving your issues. |
| You place as much or more value on the relationships that will exist in your restructured family situation as you place on obtaining the maximum possible amount of money for yourself. |
| You understand that conflict resolution with integrity involves not only achieving your own goals but finding a way to achieve the reasonable goals of the other person. |
| You and your spouse will commit your intelligence and energy toward creative problem solving rather than toward recriminations or revenge—fixing the problem rather than fixing blame. |
|
|
| Excerpted from Handbook for Clients: An orientation to …dispute-resolution options available to clients © 2001 American Bar Association |
|
