What Is Collaborative Law?

• Collaborative law is a family process that allows couples who have decided to end their marriage to resolve their issues outside the courtroom.
  
  

Origins

• Collaborative family law was started in Minneapolis, MN, by family lawyer Stuart Webb in 1990.
  
  

Process

• The collaborative family law process begins when both members of a couple seeking to end their marriage sign a document promising they will not seek to litigate their case. Each party is represented by a collaborative law practitioner, and negotiations occur with a high level of transparency.
  
  

Necessary Skills

• An attorney who practices collaborative family law must possess great skill and understanding of substantive law, negotiation and the collaborative process.
  
  

Effectiveness

• According to matrimonial lawyer and collaborative law practitioner Susan DiGirolamo, the most important reason collaborative law works is that it allows the parties to decide issues in a way that allows them to express their needs. "It's not therapy, but they get to express themselves in a way that never happens in litigation," DiGirolamo says.