Written by Collaborative practice has existed in Wisconsin for over 25 years. It began, as it did in most places, as a carefully crafted structure of team members fulfilling very definite roles inside of a somewhat radical (for the times) structure and process. There were attorneys and coaches and financial experts and child specialists that worked with a family to resolve a divorce with attention to respect, positive outcomes, and efficiency. The Wisconsin Collaborative professionals, organized under the name Collaborative Family Law Council of Wisconsin (CFLCW) was one of the first state-wide practice groups. Mots of its members are located in Southeastern Wisconsin, in the greater Madison area, and in the upper Northeast/Fox Valley region. The group was and remains dedicated to the original process and tenets of Collaborative.
As with many ideas, and groups, CFLCW has evolved as well. Today, Collaborative Law in Wisconsin embraces a spectrum of processes and approaches to deal with divorce and other family law disputes. The key characteristics of those approaches are:
- the clients in the process have the major role in the way solutions are developed;
- the clients decide, with input from experts, which approach makes sense for them;
- the experts and neutrals involved are focused on solving problems for the clients; and
- everyone works towards practical, reasonable and sustainable solutions outside of the court system.
Collaborative professionals are not tied to a specific and rigid process; they work with you to solve problems. If your goal in pursuing a divorce is to make your partner pay, you will find attorneys and other that will pursue that goal for you. Collaborative professionals are focused on solutions.
And that is the difference.