In
Wisconsin,
Collaborative Practice, including Collaborative
Law and
interdisciplinary Collaborative Divorce, is a
new way for you to resolve
disputes respectfully -- without going to court
-- while working with trained
professionals who are important to all areas of
your life.
The
heart
of Collaborative Practice is to offer you and
your spouse or partner the
support, protection, and guidance of your own
lawyers without going to court.
Additionally, Collaborative Divorce allows you
the benefit of child and
financial specialists, divorce coaches and other
professionals all working
together on your team.
team members
In its most basic form, the collaborative family
law process is identified as two clients and two
attorneys, bound by a formal agreement, who use a
collaborative approach to avoid submitting
contested issues to the court.
But collaborative practice at its best is a
flexible process, relying on professionals from
other disciplines as you need them. This team of
people works together toward one goal: maximizing
the benefit to your family.
These are the team members and their roles:
The Collaborative Attorney
The collaborative attorney has
specialized training who facilitates
interest-based negotiation and serves as an
educator and guide through the collaborative
process. Your attorney also advocates for you,
identifies questions and issues that need
resolution, provides legal advice, generates and
evaluates resolution options, manages conflict,
and assists the parties in implementing
agreements.
The Collaborative Coach
The collaborative coach, also
referred to as the divorce coach in divorce cases,
is a mental health professional who prepares each
client to participate effectively within the
collaborative process.
The collaborative coach does not act as a
therapist. Rather, the coach uses professional
training and experience to assist you in managing
emotional or psychological issues that might
otherwise get in the way of a productive
collaborative process. The coach also communicates
with other collaborative team members to provide
insight and assistance to help facilitate the
process.
The Collaborative Coach:
Identifies and prioritizes your concerns;
Provides emotional support as you move through
the loss, grief and anger of separation or other
difficult family law issues;
Identifies and offers assistance in containing
strong emotions that might interfere with the
collaborative process;
Understands the dynamics of family
relationships;
Identifies communication patterns and improve
on negative patterns as necessary;
Helps you develop and support an effective
parenting plan and enhances your co-parenting
skills;
and assists you and the team in addressing
roadblocks to resolution.
The Child Specialist
The child specialist is a mental
health professional with specific training and
experience in working with family systems, child
development, parents and children who are in the
midst of undergoing a divorce or other custody-
and placement-related issue.
The child specialist provides support for the
children and assists parents in clarifying their
children's needs and interests. The child
specialist helps the parents make decisions that
take their children's feelings and needs into
account, giving the children a voice in the
process.
Overall, the child specialist has three
responsibilities:
to provide the children with an opportunity
to voice their concerns
to provide parents with information and
guidance to help their children throughout the
process
and to provide information to the
collaborative team that will help develop an
effective co-parenting plan that prioritizes the
needs of the children.
The Financial Specialist
The financial specialist is a
professional who helps you gather, organize, list,
understand and analyze financial data relevant to
your case.
The financial specialist can be a certified
financial planner, certified divorce planner,
certified public accountant, or other financial
professional with the right training and
experience to handle the unique financial
challenges presented in divorce and family law
cases.
You can select a financial professional based on
your particular circumstances and needs. The
financial specialist:
helps you determine and understand personal
net worth and budgeting,
uses expertise with tax laws as it relates to
divorce,
presents analyses related to child support and
family maintenance,
assists in providing property valuations, if
necessary,
and communicates among the team.
Other Team Members
In addition to attorneys,
coaches, child and financial specialists, you may
choose to retain other experts or consultants such
as appraisers, mortgage brokers or vocational
experts. Unlike traditional litigated cases, where
the parties hire competing experts to "fight it
out," both parties in the collaborative process
jointly retain the experts they need and consider
the options the experts present.
