Thursday May 16, 2013 at 9:00am
A recurring theme on this blog is the fact that adopting a non-confrontational approach to divorce is of benefit to all concerned. It may go against every natural instinct you have to be quick in responding to correspondence, making concessions on both sides to reach a settlement faster and, frankly, not indulging in a spot of point scoring to make you feel better. Divorce, though, doesn’t have to be a battlefield.
This is neatly encapsulated by seeking a collaborative approach to ....
Thursday February 28, 2013 at 9:00am
Collaborative divorce is the future. At least that’s what I am being told by our team of collaborative family lawyers. Mind you I certainly agree that a conciliatory approach, where couples agree to reach a settlement on finances and agreement on any arrangements for children without going to court, is a sensible way of conducting a family law case and I’m encouraged to see it’s increasingly being seen as a good approach by more clients too.
Speaking to our team of collabora....
Tuesday December 18, 2012 at 9:00am
A change is a good a rest, they say. And I have certainly made a change. I have the honour of being Woolley & Co’s most recent appointment to the growing firm. And so far, touch wood, all is good.
It’s the change to the routine that has baffled me so far. Being home-based rather than in a high street office is a bit strange. I am not sat next to anybody but I get all the support I need. Everyone has been fantastic. For most of my career I have worked in an office sur....
Thursday April 12, 2012 at 9:00am
There is still a lot of confusion about collaborative family law and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) generally. The Government is moving to help this by dropping the “alternative” from the name so it will just be termed dispute resolution. I’m sure there must have been a committee agonising over this for months but it's not really likely to help that much is it?
As I have mentioned previously, the formal collaborative law approach has failed to catch on in ....
Monday March 26, 2012 at 9:00am
For what it’s worth, I think the collaborative approach to law will gather pace in the coming years to the point that it is commonplace. It is taking a long time to catch on in the UK after it was exported here from the US where its origins lay, but it will get there.
Couples choosing to go down the route of a collaborative divorce sign up to reaching an agreement without going to court and through debating the points of a settlement in a non-confrontational way. All ....
Monday March 12, 2012 at 9:00am
At the turn of the year, Lord Wilson of Culworth, a justice of the Supreme Court, talked about the possible emergence of arbitration as an additional route for resolving disputes, and I cautiously welcomed it in a blog. Well, things have moved on and a new scheme has been launched to enable families to turn to arbitration to help settle disputes and avoid having to go to court.
If mediation and/or collaboration fails to reach agreement, the newly formed Institute of Family Law Ar....
Thursday March 8, 2012 at 9:00am
I read back through some of my recent blogs yesterday, as I frequently do, looking for things I have mentioned in passing and meant to follow up. What I noticed though was that I seem to have been talking about people being civilised and “adult” about divorce quite a lot. And this got me thinking (which is always a dangerous thing).
I think most people would agree that the concept of collaborative law is a good one: two people who have decided to go their separate way....
Monday January 16, 2012 at 9:00am
So what will be new in family law for 2012? What trend will be “in” for the year? It’s difficult to know really. After so much happened, comparatively speaking, in 2011, it is difficult to see there being any additional big moves for 2012. It is more likely to be a year of consolidation, as the management speak goes.
In 2011, we had the long-awaited Family Justice Review which arrived with an apologetic whimper, introducing the Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings ....
Monday November 14, 2011 at 9:00am
There seemed to be a sudden proliferation of US TV series a few years ago based around law practices. Ally McBeal, LA Law, JAG, that sort of thing. This seems to have evolved now into more legal investigation programmes, such as CSI, NCIS, and other acronyms. Add to these very popular shows the sheer number of films that include some element of legal process, either a criminal investigation, court case or simply “cops on the edge”, and you can see there is a pretty powerful platf....
Thursday November 10, 2011 at 9:00am
The focus of media coverage on the publication of the Family Justice Review last week was the call to ensure child care decisions in family courts were made within six months. A noteworthy point and a sensible decision, though you would hope this is the longest anyone would have to wait for a decision rather than the norm.
In his report, former senior civil servant David Norgrove said family justice was inherently slow and children suffered "shocking delays" over decisions ab....
Thursday October 20, 2011 at 9:30am
As an active collaborative lawyer I am finding myself in court less and less these days, which for me is a real bonus. This is not to say I’m not busy, but my time and energy is focused on helping clients to reach amicable solutions to their problems in a way that enables them to move forward into the next phase of their lives in a more positive and constructive way. I think this is most efficient use of all of our time and, definitely, of a client’s money. Generally speaking, it hel....
Monday October 17, 2011 at 9:30am
A little while ago a client came to me stating that he wanted a “Rottweiler” of a solicitor and I found this approach very strange indeed. As someone who was attacked when riding my bike home from work one night by a vicious Doberman (that looked like a Rottweiler) and ending up in A&E and permanently scarred, the concept of wanting to instruct someone that had the potential of causing you and your former partner pain and expense was a mystery to me. What made it even worse....
Monday October 10, 2011 at 9:30am
There are few areas of life that remain steeped in tradition and still practised as they were several decades ago. For most people, times change and things move on. It could be argued that law is one of the areas most resistant to that change, for many of the reasons I have mentioned in previous blogs. Firms run by non-business people, a reluctance to make it easy for people to pay, or use emails to send documents and make agreements, or insisting on face-to-face meetings in high street office....
Thursday March 31, 2011 at 10:00am
ADR seems to be a new buzz word in family law at the moment. Alternative Dispute Resolution has been mentioned much in context of family mediation, as mediation is an example of ADR. However, an alternative route to mediation is collaborative divorce. I’ve talked about collaborative family law a number of times before but I think in the current climate there has been some confusion around collaboration, mediation and ADR, so it is worth mentioning again. A big difference between collaborat....
Thursday January 27, 2011 at 10:00am
I caught sight of a piece on divorce in, of all places the Farmers Guardian. What’s more its a piece about Collaborative divorce. And I think it makes some good points.
Specifically, the piece looks at how a collaborative approach to divorce can be particularly beneficial to couples on a working farm, when they both have a vested interest in keeping the business running while going through difficult times personally. The collaborative approach can help diffuse situations and deal with ....