Collaborative Law Facts & Figures

Facts and Figures about Collaborative Practice
Collaborative Practice is a new way for a divorcing couple to work as a team with trained professionals to resolve disputes respectfully, without going to court. The term encompasses all of the models that have been developed since Minnesota lawyer Stu Webb created the Collaborative Law model in the 1980s. This model is at the heart of all of Collaborative Practice. Each client has the support, protection and guidance of his or her own lawyer.
The lawyers and the clients together comprise the Collaborative Law component of Collaborative Practice. While lawyers are always a part of Collaboration, some models provide child specialists, financial specialists and divorce coaches as part of the clients' divorce team. In these models the clients have the option of starting their divorce with the professional with whom they feel most comfortable. Then the clients choose the other professionals they need.
The International Academy of Collaborative Professionals is a worldwide membership organization committed to fostering professional excellence in conflict resolution through Collaborative Practice

Divorce’s toll on children
• Support is often available to adults experiencing losses, and little attention is paid to children. It’s a myth that “children are resilient” to their parent’s divorce.
• Include statistic—not the divorce—but the way people divorce that affects children
• Number of children affected every year by divorce
• About 25% of children experience major problems or emotional difficulties after living through divorce. This compares to 10% of children in non-divorced families who experience major behavioral or academic problems.

Collaborative Law is one way to ease the pain of divorce for parents and their children
because children’s needs are given priority.
The Growth of Collaborative Practice
• There are more than 10,000 professionals trained in Collaborative Practice in the U.S.
• There are more than 200 Collaborative Practice groups around the world
• In Canada, there is a Collaborative Practice practitioner in every province and two territories
• Groups range from five to more than 300 members
• The attorneys general of Australia and Canada both have embraced collaborative practice as an appropriate alternative to litigation in those countries
• There is a Collaborative Practice practitioner in all but four states in the U.S. (ND, SD, WY and MT)
• IACP membership has grown from 200 in 2001 to more than 2,400 in 2006.

 

Call me for a consultation. Collaborative Law offers the opportunity to avoid costly litigation that may be unnecessary.