How is collaborative practice different from traditional court proceedings?

Through court proceedings or litigation to resolve a family law case, you would go through a sequence of court conferences and hearings. This can take many months or most likely years before you have a final trial where a Judge would make a decision as to how your dispute will be resolved.

Through collaborative practice, you, your ex-partner and your respective lawyers work together, sometimes with other professionals such as valuers, accountants and child experts, to find out what each party wants and how that can be achieved. The court is not involved in this process and no documents are filed with the court whilst the negotiations are ongoing. Once you have reached an agreement, you can choose to send that agreement to the court to be made into an order.