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HOW TO GET STARTED

If you think the Collaborative Family Law process may work for you, these are the steps to take:

1) Introduce the concept to your spouse - If you feel comfortable introducing the concept to your spouse directly, talk with them about the Collaborative Family Law Process and share the information on this website. You may not be comfortable fielding questions about the concept from your spouse, so it may be advisable to simply advise them that you have found the concept appealing, and then give them this website address (or the link in an e-mail) so that your spouse can explore in their own time and at their own pace. How a concept is presented (or who is doing the presenting) impacts greatly on its acceptance. 

2) Each spouse chooses a collaborative family law lawyer - Each of you should take your time to review the list of collaborative lawyers on this site (CLICK HERE for “Choosing a CFL Lawyer”) towards selecting your own collaborative lawyer. You may have a phone consultation or meet with as many of them as you want before making your selection. Your collaborative lawyers can help you decide whether the Collaborative Family Law process suits you.

3) Each spouse then meets first with their collaborative lawyer, and then together the four of you arrange the first 4-way Collaborative Family Law meeting. Your lawyer will prepare you for that meeting.

4) Both spouses and both collaborative lawyers sign the Collaborative Family Law Agreement and commit to adhere to the Process Guidelines. In this contract you agree not to go to court. You may examine examples of these documents by clicking on their titles in this paragraph.

Now you are ready to begin the process.

To move on to discover more about how the process works, read up on THE BASICS (CLICK HERE).