Edmonton Collaborative Family Law

Collaborative family law is a unique dispute resolution process designed to enable spouses to work together to create a divorce or separation agreement that works for their entire family.  Unlike many forms of dispute resolution, collaborative family law is not based on the adversarial court system.  At Verhaeghe Law Office – our collaborative family law lawyers can help with your collaborative family law needs. Contact us to book a consultation with our collaborative family law lawyers today.

In order to participate, you and your spouse both have to commit to the process.  If at any point, one of you decides not to continue in the collaborative divorce process, your collaborative family lawyer is not able to represent you in court or in any other dispute resolution process.  Don’t let that deter you, though. All it means is that your lawyer has added incentive to help you reach a settlement rather than ending up in court.  Many families find that collaborative family law is less expensive, less stressful and more empowering than traditional methods of dispute resolution after a divorce or separation.

Is Edmonton collaborative family law right for you?

Collaborative family law can be an effective way to deal with the end of a wide variety of relationships. It does not matter whether you were married or in a common-law relationship, whether you had kids, or how long you were together. 

The collaborative family law process has also been used for the successful negotiation of cohabitation and pre-nuptial agreements. 

In order to participate in the collaborative divorce process, you and your spouse must both agree, in writing:

• to share all relevant documents with each other and your lawyers
• to communicate respectfully
• not to commence the litigation process or threaten to commence the litigation process.

If your spouse does not agree that the collaborative family law process is the right way to proceed, then you cannot proceed without them. 

Because the collaborative family law process requires the spouses to work together as a team, it is typically not recommended for spouses in an abusive relationship, or a situation where there is a significant power imbalance between the spouses.

How does the Edmonton collaborative family law process work?

A typical collaborative process might begin with a meeting between both spouses and their lawyers, in which the parties will likely identify the issues on which they agree and those which need to be resolved.  This might be followed by a period of information gathering, during which the spouses obtain and share any relevant documents that are required to reach a settlement.  Once they have all the information they need, the spouses meet together with their lawyers for one or more informal negotiation sessions and try to work their way towards a resolution of the outstanding issues.

The collaborative family law process uses  interest-based negotiations, which are non-adversarial in nature.  When the goal of the negotiation is to come to an agreement that works for everyone, rather than “winning”, the whole focus and tone of the negotiation shifts.  These negotiations allow parties to avoid wasting time on the unreasonable positions that tend to develop in an adversarial system. 

Book a Consultation with Verhaeghe Law Office’s Collaborative Family Law Lawyers Today

If you are interested in Alberta Collaborative Family Law services, we can further explain the process and help you to determine if it is right for you. Contact us today to schedule a consultation. We are proud to represent Albertans with their collaborative family law needs and are ready to put our experience to work for you.