What is Collaborative Divorce?

Collaborative divorce or collaborative family law is a voluntary and private dispute resolution process in which the separating couple makes a commitment to settle their family law matter outside of court by working cooperatively. This process aims to provide a more holistic approach by addressing the financial, emotional, and legal issues that impact a family. Both parties are encouraged to focus on what is fair and in the best interests of the family, rather than on advancing their own personal position and trying to "win". 

Key Commitments

In collaborative divorce, the separating couple agrees to:

• Communicate in a respectful and open manner.
• Exchange information in good faith and to provide complete and accurate disclosure.
• Maintain the confidentiality of the process.
• Resolve issues constructively and in a non-adversarial manner.
• Engage in non-positional negotiation, focusing on both parties’ interests.
• Find mutually acceptable solutions that work for the family as a whole; and
• Not litigate in court.

Initiating the Collaborative Divorce Approach

STEP 1: Retaining Collaborative Lawyers

To start the process, each party needs to retain their own collaborative divorce lawyer. These family lawyers have completed special training in collaborative law, mediation, and interest-based negotiation. 

STEP 2: Signing the participation agreement

At the first four-way meeting, the parties sign a participation agreement with their family lawyers to enter the collaborative divorce process. If the parties have retained divorce coaches or other professionals, they may also sign the agreement. This agreement contains a “disqualification clause” that says that if either party commences litigation in court, the collaborative process will end and the family lawyers can no longer represent their clients. This means that both separating spouses must hire new lawyers, and it acts as a deterrent to quitting the collaborative divorce process.

STEP 3: Collaborative Four-Way Meetings

The collaborative family law process consists of a series of four-way meetings. While a traditional four-way meeting in family law involves a settlement meeting between the former spouses and their lawyers, a collaborative family law meeting is different.

First, the collaborative family law meeting may include other specialists from the collaborative team, such as a financial or divorce coaches.

The nature of a collaborative family law meeting is also different. Traditionally, lawyers engage in position-oriented negotiation when meeting. However, in collaborative family law the parties and their lawyers work as a team during these meetings and negotiations are interest-based. Interest based negotiations are focused on the underlying needs, wants, goals, and concerns of the family.

While there are no rules about the number of meetings, the process typically involves around two to four meetings. The first meeting consists of introductions, reviewing and signing the participation agreement, explaining the collaborative process, discussing expectations and ground rules, and setting an agenda that identifies the issues at hand.

Between the meetings, the parties engage in information gathering by exchanging document requests between their family lawyers and consulting with other professionals as needed. The collaborative divorce experts may assist in preparing reports, such as a business valuation. If divorce coaches have been retained, the separating spouses may meet them individually for emotional support, or together to develop a parenting plan, to resolve parenting conflicts, or assist with communication strategies.

During subsequent meetings, the separating couple will continue to explore interests, generate options and negotiate mutually acceptable resolutions. This continues until a separation agreement has been reached.

Step 4: Separation Agreement

Once the parties have reached an agreement on all issues, the collaborative lawyers will prepare a separation agreement, which will set out the agreement on all issues. The separation agreement is a legally binding contract that is enforceable by a judge, and can include terms on parenting, child support, spousal support, and the division of family property.

Success and Benefits of Collaborative Divorce

Collaborative divorce allows both parties to:

• Retain control over the outcome of their separation
• Work cooperatively with professional support, rather than against one another
• Avoid adversarial court proceedings, reducing conflict and stress
• Communicate respectfully and openly
• Exchange information in good faith, with full disclosure

The success rate of the collaborative process is very high. It’s estimated that approximately 92–95% of all collaborative law matters are resolved outside of court.

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