What You Need To Know About Collaborative Family Law Calgary

By Ann Allen


For people that are divorcing or dealing with various other family problems, the alternative to resolution is collaborative family law. The people involved strive to reach a resolution together with the help of a family attorney. In certain instances, they also involve financial advisers and mental health counselors. The form of resolution will not involve any court processes. In consideration of collaborative family law Calgary residents need to be well versed with what it involves.

In the first lace, the laws were established to help only in case of divorce. In order to be a success, those involved need to be participants in he process. There will be no success if either party is not willing to genuinely be part of it or if they are already adversarial. All those involved also need to fully comply with terms of the resolution. This is crucial if any meaningful ground is to be covered.

In the event that there are kids involved, an important aspect of the contract is that children will be left out of the dispute. There should also be maintaining of stable home environment as the resolution is done. The attorney during this process is not to litigate or defend their clients. Both parties will need to agree to participate in the process. Both parties are supposed to have their attorney. The attorneys help clients to figure issues regarding child custody, splitting marital assets and child support.

For collaborative processes, you need the services of a counselor. When couples are trying to reach an agreement on emotionally charged issues, a counselor helps to cool down the tempers. They will try and help both parties to deal with various issues that arise, In addition, they can also assist parties to develop skills that will help them to cope and effectively communicate with each other. This comes in handy because individuals will still need to remain good friends and more so if there are kids involved.

There will need to be a first meeting between the attorney and his client so that the process is discussed in depth. If an agreement is reached, attorneys for both parties will meet to agree on what needs to be discussed in the first joint meeting. In the joint meeting, the couple and attorneys will be present so that ground rules are laid.

There is then signing of a contract that binds everyone to use the collaborative process. When that is done, both parties decide on what the next step should be and as such there may be further meetings organized. All binding issues are ideally discussed in meetings that involve all parties. Mutual respect and trust will be key to having a successful process. Also important are commitment and honesty.

In case for a reason or the other the process breaks down, all the discussions that you had will be considered confidential. They cannot be referred to in court processes or for future negotiations. It is a fundamental principle. However, majority of cases tend to be successful and thus planning for failure never comes in.

In case there is success in the resolution, there will be preparation of a binding separation agreement by the attorney. It is a reflection of all issues that were agreed upon. The document is signed by both parties.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment