Collaborative divorce, or known today as collaborative law, is a divorce procedure in which both parties will agree that they would not go to court, or threaten to do so. This approach to dispute resolution was created by a Minnesota family lawyer named Stu Webb, who saw that traditional litigation was not always helpful to parties and their families, and often was damaging. Since then, the collaborative law movement has spread rapidly to most of the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia. Learn more about this with the st. louis collaborative divorce.

Per the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, more than 10,000 lawyers have been trained in collaborative law in the United States, with collaborative practitioners in at least 46 states. In some localities, collaborative law has become the predominant method for resolving divorces.

Being a relatively new dispute resolution process, there are no formal training requirements by organized bar associations or by law. However, most experienced collaborative practitioners generally agree that a high level of skill in these three areas is required to practice collaborative law well: substantive law; the collaborative process, and; interest-based negotiation. The st. louis collaborative divorce can provide more info about this.

In order to achieve the necessary level of competence, it is generally accepted that specialized training in the collaborative process and mediation techniques, and substantial experience handling collaborative law cases, is required.

There is a significant difference between collaborative process and adversarial dispute resolution techniques, and neither education nor experience in the adversarial system is adequate to gain even the basic additional skills and perspective that are necessary for collaborative practice. Learn more about this with the st. louis collaborative divorce.

Collaborative divorce may not be a viable option in certain situations. If there is active domestic violence, drug or alcohol addiction, serious mental illness, or an intention to hurt the other party emotionally or financially, traditional litigation or arbitration may be more appropriate.

Collaborative law has spread from family law to other fields of law. Practitioners are now applying it to business, probate, employment, intellectual property and personal injury cases. The extent to which the rule on disclosure of all pertinent materials will apply will depend on the nature of the dispute, it being understood in certain areas that it may not be possible or realistic for a party to disclose all material facts. For more information about collaborative law and divorces, then visit the st. louis collaborative divorce for more details.