One of life’s most painful experiences is the breakdown of a relationship. It is an important part of recovery to be able to look to the future, rather than dwell on the past. But in the aftermath of a separation it is necessary to sort out your financial affairs and arrangements for the children. How can you do this without coming to loggerheads?
Collaborative law enables you to work with your ex to help you achieve a result you both consider fair, thus giving you not only the financial wherewithal, but also the emotional wherewithal to build a new life for yourselves and your children.
Collaborative Law is a process whereby you and your ex don’t go to court. Instead you both have a collaboratively trained family solicitor advising and guiding you throughout. Issues are discussed in face to face meetings between you, your ex and your respective lawyers. You retain control of the whole process and focus on what is important for each of you and your children. Both of you commit to attempting to resolve your differences without going to court, and to being respectful and honest to each other. When you have children together it will be necessary to communicate in the future and retain a working relationship, and the collaborative law process really helps with this.
It doesn’t work for everyone, but if you think it could work for you, please contact us. Our divorce solicitors Mary McEvoy in our Luton office, and Beth Woodward in our Milton Keynes office are trained collaborative lawyers.
Mary can be contacted on 01582 725311 or at mary.mcevoy@neves-solicitors.co.uk. Beth can be contacted on 01908 304560 or at beth.woodward@neves-solicitors.co.uk. We have more information about collaborative law in our Luton, Harpenden and Milton Keynes offices on our website here.
Collaborative law – what makes a successful negotiator?
As collaborative lawyers, we place a strong emphasis on negotiation. Mary and Beth recently attended training courses focusing on negotiation skills. What makes a successful negotiator?
- The quality of their planning rather than the amount of time they spend on planning;
- Successful negotiators consider over five possible outcomes in contrast to an average negotiator who looks at between two and three possible outcomes;
- Successful negotiators give over three times as much attention to common ground areas as do average negotiators;
- Average negotiators tend to have a fairly linear structure, whilst successful negotiators are more able to think outside the box.
The course was run by Resolution (formerly The Solicitors Family Law Association) who continued to impress on collaborative lawyers from around the country the importance of encouraging clients engaged in the Collaborative Law process to look at the wider picture in order to improve outcomes within the divorce for the whole family, including the children, so as to enable both partners to end up in a place where they both feel comfortable or where they feel that the best outcome for all members of the family has been achieved.
