You, your partner and your lawyers will all sign a Collaboration Contract setting out the ground rules for the collaborative process and stipulating that if either client commences court proceedings, both collaborative lawyers will be disqualified from representing either client.
Underpinning the collaborative process is an understanding that you and your partner (and your respective lawyers) will act in good faith, be open and honest in your dealings with one another and respect the fact that different views will need to be expressed to achieve a fair settlement.
All the negotiations will take place at "four-way" face-to-face meetings between you, your partner and the lawyers. Correspondence between lawyers is kept to a minimum. By being present throughout the negotiations, you and your partner retain control; the scope for misunderstandings is reduced; and you will be assisted in communicating with each other in a non-confrontational way, which is particularly important if you are parenting children together. The meetings are minuted and action points for future meetings agreed. Where appropriate, you will be encouraged to draw on the skills of other specialist advisers, such as accountants to assist with financial disclosure, or child counsellors to discuss an issue which may have arisen in relation to the care of your children.
Once a settlement is reached, the lawyers will draw up a Settlement Agreement which may be submitted to the court for approval.
This confidentiality will be overridden where any of the professionals involved have a professional obligation to make a report to a relevant authority — for example, if a child is considered to be at risk.
If the collaborative process fails, you and your partner may not use any of the information or documentation generated during the collaborative process other than that relating to financial disclosure.
The reason that collaborative law has been successful in other jurisdictions is that the lawyers are disqualified from acting for the client should collaboration fail. A disqualification agreement underlines the fact that all the parties are attempting to achieve settlement without threatening or being subject to the threat of court proceedings when things become difficult.
By agreeing at the outset not to go to court, you, the other party and the lawyers can be encouraged to reach creative settlements (of course having regard to the legal position), but having you and the particular interests of all the parties involved at the forefront of any settlement proposals.
As long as you and your partner act in good faith, provide the information requested of you within the timescales agreed and cooperate in the process, the collaborative process will inevitably be quicker and cheaper than a dispute resolved by a court hearing.
Alternatively, your lawyer can write to the other party suggesting collaborative law as a means of resolving your dispute and invite him/her to participate, or you can discuss this directly with the other party concerned.