What is collaborative law practice and how does that differ from mediation?
Collaborative law practice is a process of settling legal disputes where clients and their attorneys agree to a set of principles that foster a cooperative approach to negotiations and are designed to settle the dispute in a non-adversarial manner. Central to collaborative law is the agreement that the participants will not resort to or threaten litigation. Negotiations in a collaborative case occur in open meetings attended by the clients and their collaborative lawyers or other collaboratively trained professionals such as a financial planner, child specialist, economist, vocational counselor, etc. While these meetings typically occur without a neutral mediator present, mediators may be retained to facilitate productive communications among the clients and collaborative professionals. When communications break down or the collaborative clients reach an impasse in their negotiations, a mediator can be retained to help the collaborative clients and their lawyers resume their discussion
