3. Collaborative Family Lawyers and Collaborative Family Dispute Counsellors
Collaborative Family Lawyers
Collaborative family lawyers are lawyers who have trained in cooperative dispute resolution and collaborative decision-making processes such as offered in the Collaborative Practice Training Course.
Collaboratively family lawyers practice independently of each other but work closely and cooperatively with each other during the collaborative process.
Traditionally family lawyers have been trained in a culture of adversarial and confrontational negotiation. Collaborative family lawyers need to “shift” out of the adversarial culture of confrontation which is associated with court trials, courtroom processes, and settlement negotiations that take place in the “shadow of litigation”.
It is important that family lawyers who represent separating parents must be trained to work collaboratively. Lawyers need to work collaboratively and need to facilitate their clients to work collaboratively. They should embrace and practice the principles of cooperative dispute resolution and collaborative decision making.
A good background for collaborative family lawyers is a combination of training and experience in law, mediation, negotiation and collaborative dispute resolution, such as training in the Collaborative Practice Training Course.
Collaborative Family Dispute Counsellors
Collaborative Family Dispute Counsellors assist divorcing and separating couples understand the family law system, divorce and separation process and help clients deal with the emotional impact of that process.
Counsellors and psychologists are also trained in the collaborative family law model and understand how collaborative separation and divorce works. The Collaborative Practice Training Course is an interdisciplinary course and psychologists/counsellors and lawyers train together wherever possible.