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Collaborative Representation
a
practical alternative to mediation and litigation.
Collaborative law is a procedure in which the parties
and their counsel agree in writing to use their best efforts and make a good
faith attempt to resolve their dissolution of marriage dispute or the suit
affecting the parent-child relationship on an agreed basis without resorting
to judicial intervention except to have the court approve the settlement
agreement, make the legal pronouncements, and sign the orders required by law
to effectuate the agreement of the parties as the court determines
appropriate.
What makes this process so different from mediation,
is that initial lawyers in the collaborative process must withdraw if the
matters are not resolved and they proceed to litigation. The parties' counsel
may not serve as litigation counsel except to ask the court to approve the
settlement agreement. This way, to be rather frank, there is no confusion
about whether the attorneys involved are in anyway limited in seeing these
highly emotional disputes resolve themselves as painlessly as possible.
All collaborative law agreements must include
provisions for:
· Full and candid exchange of information between the parties and their
attorneys as necessary to make a proper evaluation of the case;
· Suspending court intervention in the dispute while the parties are using
collaborative law procedures;
· Hiring experts, as jointly agreed, to be used in the procedure;
· Withdrawal of all counsel involved in the collaborative law procedure if
the collaborative law procedure does not result in settlement of the dispute;
and
· Other provisions as agreed to by the parties consistent with a good faith
effort to collaboratively settle the matter.
Collaborative Law agreements can be made irrevocable,
i.e., binding agreements to not litigate your divorce, if it is specified in
bold and signed by both parties and their counsel.
If you are interested in a free consultation with
Dallas divorce lawyers practicing this type of new representation aimed at
minimizing the financial and emotional impact of a drawn out adversarial
process, please click contact us to your left to setup and appointment by
phone, email, or web form submission.
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