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May Newsletter

(Yes, I know it’s June…)

COLLABORATIVE LAW
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So, what is this Collaborative Law business really all about?

Well, the rage started in the States, where contention is big business. Some lawyers (God Bless Them) became sickened by the sight of couples slogging it out in court and decided that there must be a better way.

Rather than having couples and their respective solicitors send letters to each other to thrash out deals and resolve problems, a pocketful of brave solicitors decided to actually meet face to face and do it that way instead. Face to face with both parties present around a table. How to make it work?

The principal motivating factor especially for the legal teams is the loss of the client. If no settlement is reached out of court (i.e. in the room together over a series of close encounters) then the couple has to go elsewhere and start again (or end up in court). The idea is that the whole process is cheaper by far than going to court and avoids the damaging effects of drawn out contention.

So what happens to full and frank disclosure? Information about finances is volunteered by both parties. It becomes harder to conceal and distort the facts if both parties are facing each other around a table with arbitrators present. Often when each party is seeing their own solicitor separately, the facts can become distorted because each solicitor is seeing only one side of the picture; and subsequently - depending on the integrity of the solicitor – this can offer a tempting method of dragging out the arguments and increasing time spent on the case. Avoiding this, then, is already a positive point.

Since this process is a service rather than a legal requirement (in the sense that there are no court orders or court procedure requirements), there should be no need to generate mountains of paperwork. If you find that solicitors are leaving the ‘capsule’ or meeting room and running off ten foot of documented reports, you may want to question it. Who needs to know what has been said? Well, all of you of course. But that doesn’t mean you have to shift shed loads of cash to have it set out like a revised edition of War and Peace.

How about suggesting that one person takes notes; read them out at the end of each meeting and have everyone initial them; back it up by simple recordings and copy the tape to each side. That should suffice surely? Paperwork should not be permitted to rear its costly head wearing yet another mask. After all, you: the customer, are paying the bill. Dare to ask for what you want.