Family law without the fight: How collaborative law can save time, money and heartache

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Separation and divorce is a traumatic enough experience for any family to go through. But when you add in the difficult process of settling the details of who gets what, the emotional pressure can intensify further.

Ending up in court to settle family law property matters can be extremely stressful, as well as costly and time consuming. It can often add to the tension and animosity felt by those involved.

But these days growing numbers of people are choosing a different way of resolving these matters. They're opting to use the process of collaborative law to negotiate and finalise their family law property settlement.

Collaborative law is an alternative for resolving issues arising out of a relationship breakdown that aims to keep parties out of court.

Each client is represented by his or her lawyer in a series of four-way meetings with an emphasis on establishing effective and constructive communication to allow negotiation towards resolution.

Both lawyers and clients sign a contract at the start of the process which provides that all four parties to the contract will not go to court or use threats of court to solve the dispute.

Lawyer Hayley Kelloway, a collaboratively-trained professional from RMB Lawyers, said the growing trend of people opting for this method to negotiate and finalise family law property settlements was being driven by both the increase in awareness of the benefits, and in the number of local practitioners now trained in the field.

"Collaborative law avoids the stress, cost, time and animosity often involved in court proceedings," said Ms Kelloway.

"It allows both parties to act with integrity, retain control of their decision making, and reach a fair and just agreement with the ongoing advice and support of their lawyers - through cooperation rather than confrontation.

"By having the four-way meetings parties are able to discuss and resolve their matter in a time effective manner."

Collaborative law is particularly beneficial in family law disputes, where emotions are often running high.

It differs from mediation in that there is no third party facilitator in the collaborative law process.

Ms Kelloway said she had found the collaborative law process to be very successful, with family law matters generally able to be finalised over one or two collaborative sessions.

"This is taking into consideration that parties are already in the mindset of reaching an amicable agreement at the earliest opportunity when initially deciding to undertake their family law matter using the collaborative law process," she said.

"The most common circumstances where people decide to engage in this process is when both parties want to avoid the court process.

"The parties appreciate being actively involved in the negotiation process, given that collaborative law encourages discussions and general communication."

Ms Kelloway belongs to the local group Collaborative Family Lawyers Illawarra Shoalhaven, which was formed in 2007. It comprises experienced family lawyers and accredited collaborative law specialists from leading firms in the region.

For more information about collaborative law head to the RMB Lawyers website or call 1800 681 211.

This is advertiser content for RMB Lawyers.