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Top 10 Reasons to Choose Collaborative Law

 

1. There is a better way

  • Litigation is expensive, open to the public, and often destructive to families
  • Litigation is a blame game with no real winner
  • Collaborative law focuses on your goals and how to help you reach those goals
  • Collaborative law changes the focus from who is at fault, to how to solve the problem


2. Control Over The Process

  • Settlements are reached through a series of joint meetings based on each client’s schedule
  • Collaborative law allows the clients to decide the pace of process
  • You make the decision how to restructure your family and life
  • The Court cannot interfere with your case for two years


3. High Level of Confidentiality

  • No public hearings in the court room with your friends, neighbors, and strangers hearing your private business
  • The work and opinions of the neutrals in the team model are not admissible in evidence if your case goes to litigation
  • Clients have the option to ask the court to seal the court file at the conclusion of the case


 4. Less Stressful

  • You do not have to testify in court or worry about having your deposition taken
  • Collaborative law requires full disclosure of information and hiding assets or debts is prohibited
  • Clients are required to abide by a certain code of conduct
  • Collaborative law requires the clients to treat each other with respect


5. Focus on Family

  • Collaborative law focuses on the future of you and your family, not the past
  • Communication is encouraged between the clients
  • The clients are encouraged not to assign blame


6. Cost Efficient

  • Joint email communications are used to save time and money
  • Neutral professionals are used so that the clients are not paying for two lawyers to do the work that one neutral can perform
  • No money is spent for lawyers to file motions, interview witnesses, prepare witnesses or take depositions
  • Your money is being spent to reach a resolution


 7. Flexible Solutions

  • You are not bound by the Texas Family Code
  • Clients customize the final outcome to meet their shared goals
  • You decide what is in the best interest of your family, not the judge
  • The neutral expert can figure out creative ideas to divide assets and debts in light of goals and needs, not in light of codes and rules

 

8. Save The Trees

  • Collaborative law avoids burdensome and expensive formal discovery of documents
  • Parties decide what documents are needed and how they will be exchanged
  • Only necessary documents are exchanged instead of using standardized requests for large amounts of information that will likely never be used
  • With Collaborative law, paper is saved, time is saved and money is saved by not playing paper war


9. Emotions Are Managed

  • Neutral professionals, with an entirely different skill set than the lawyers, help to manage emotions
  • Cooling off periods are used to help diffuse anger and fears
  • Small emotional flare-ups are handled before they turn into a large raging outbursts
  • No one can rush to the courthouse when emotions are high


10. Focus is Solely on Settlement

  • Most cases settle after large amounts of money have been spent preparing for hearings or trial.
  • Collaborative law starts with settlement being the goal from the very beginning
  • With Collaborative law, the focus is on settling differences, not proving the other person is bad or wrong