What makes for effective Collaborative Practice?  The author shares thoughts gleaned from a personal journey.  Prelude: I recently travelled to the place I was born, Omaha, NE, to visit my father, to attend my 35th High School Reunion, and to meet with members of the Collaborative Practice Nebraska practice group to learn about the state of Collaborative Practice in my hometown. Going Home. This trip proved to be fertile ground indeed, so much so that I have organized my thoughts into three parts.  This one is about doing the little things. I had a chance encounter in Omaha with a young woman named Deb, the receptionist for Kelle Westland,...

The OCFLA[1] was originally conceived in 2007, by members of a Collaborative Law sub-committee of a Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution for Children and Families.  Five (5) years later, the 129th General Assembly passed the Ohio Collaborative Family Law Act (OCFLA), effective on March 22, 2013.[2]  In so doing, the legislature provided Ohio families with a common sense approach to avoiding antagonistic and costly divorce litigation.  The legislature saw fit to codify what is commonly known as Collaborative Practice[3] and added this contractually-based, voluntary method for solving family law issues, to...

I am seeing more and more clients – especially those who have previously experienced marriage and divorce – come to my office to learn about prenuptial (also known as premarital) agreements. Though they certainly do not go into the marriage planning to divorce, they know the statistics and want a prenuptial agreement to protect them and ensure that they do not get trapped in endless litigation later on. At the same time, I find fewer and fewer family law attorneys who are willing to draft prenuptial agreements. Lawyers fear that, for whatever reason, the agreement could later be found to be unenforceable. Void prenuptial agreements create,...

L’Istituto Italiano di Diritto Collaborativo – Italian Institute for Collaborative Law, founded at the end of 2009 and formally constituted on 12 January 2010, is the natural development of a 15-year experience carried forward by a fairly homogeneous group of lawyers and other passionate supporters of Family Law and Mediation practicing mainly in the Capital.  [Per la versione dell’autore in italiano, clicca qui.] The following developments are the important precursors to the development of the Institute: The Courses for Family Mediators in the Legal Field, sponsored by the National Lawyers Association in the period 2001-2003 The work...

When a Collaborative client is in therapy as they go through their divorce, they will often say things such as:  “My therapist thinks you guys don’t understand what a liar my husband is.  She thinks I should consider hiring a different lawyer.” “My therapist doesn’t understand why my wife and I can’t meet with him to do our parenting plan.” “Could you talk to my therapist? I don’t know how to explain to her why this process is taking so long.” And it makes sense.  They are linked up to the emotional life support offered by two simultaneous processes.  And while these processes, therapy and Collaborative Practice, are both based on...

In almost every consultation, the prospective clients have two questions – how long will this take and what will be the cost?  The standard answer is always, “Well it will depend on how many issues we have to resolve and how well you and your spouse are willing to work together.” After the divorce is finalized, I sometimes receive feedback that they didn’t realize it was going to take so long or cost so much. This, of course, is the unpredictable nature of the practice. To address this opportunity for improvement, we have started a 2-day divorce program or The Divorce Weekend that charges a flat fee. The fees are paid before the weekend is...