I’ve recently posted a new section to my website about collaborative law. Attorneys fall into two camps when it comes to collaborative law – those that think it is the best thing since sliced bread, and the old school litigators who think it is a waste of time. I won’t go so far to say that it is the best thing since sliced bread, but I definitely think it is a tool that should be employed wherever possible to resolve family law cases. I just don’t believe that expensive and time-consuming litigation has a place in the family law courtroom.
In family court, the litigants aren’t corporations who can afford to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in a court battle – they are everyday folks who, for the most part, are looking for an amicable solution to their problem so that they can move on with their lives.
If you have read my divorce guide, you already know that I am not the lawyer for you if you are looking for a dogfight. Not that I can’t hold my own in a courtroom – I can – I just feel that most individuals are better served to settle their cases out of court, using an ADR technique such as mediation or collaborative law. Perhaps it’s my personality, perhaps it is because I went to a law school with one of the best ADR curricula in the country, perhaps it is a little of both. I just don’t believe that the majority of family law cases belong in the courtroom.