Collaborative Law - Your Ticket Out Of Litigation

In Collaborative Law, you hire a specially trained negotiation attorney instead of litigation counsel.

Collaborative law is based on two simple questions: If 95-97% of all civil cases settle before trial, why do attorneys insist on handling cases as if they are actually going to trial? Why not deal with cases in a realistic manner–that the case is going to settle anyway–and therefore save the clients' time, money and heartache by entering the case with the goal of helping the parties to settle, rather than with the fiction that a judge will actually hear the case?

That approach is what defines “Collaborative Law.” This is a new way to practice alternative dispute resolution with the use of lawyers but without litigating in courts. Collaborative law is a process designed for negotiation, not for the litigation process.

In the Collaborative Law process, the parties usually meet with the lawyers in conferences, with the expectation that there will be cooperation, openness and honesty (with the expectation of verification). The idea is to avoid a legal litigation trial. As one Collaborative Law group wrote:

• “Collaborative Law requires each party and each attorney to take a reasoned position on all issues. Where such positions differ, all participants use their best efforts to create proposals that meet the fundamental needs of both parties and, if necessary, to compromise to reach a settlement of all issues.”
  
  Courtesy of the South Texas Collaborative Family Law Group, http://texasfamilylawinfo.com/collaborative.htm)

What makes collaborative law different from legal litigation is that the parties and lawyers sign an agreement that they will resolve the dispute without resorting to the courts. Therefore everyone involved can focus on negotiating a settlement, without worrying about preparing for discovery, motions and a trial.

If the parties cannot resolve the dispute, then the collaborative law attorneys have to withdraw from the case—they cannot represent a party in the collaborative law process and then in a contested court proceeding. If the collaborative law negotiations fail, and the parties want a trial, then they have to incur the additional expense of hiring and familiarizing a new litigation lawyer about the case.

Collaborative law requires that both parties’ lawyers be trained in the collaborative law process. Bob Baum was one of the first attorney’s in Maryland to be trained in collaborative law and is a leader in the collaborative law movement (see biography). While collaborative law is used widely in Canada, Europe and parts of the United States (particularly Massachusetts, California and Texas), there are probably less than one hundred collaboratively trained lawyers in Maryland, and virtually all of them practice only collaborative family law. There are even fewer collaboratively trained consultants such as financial planners, real estate (mortgage) consultants and therapists. Yet the collaborative law process requires that there be two collaboratively trained attorneys in the case, and that they find the appropriate consultants to bring into the case if necessary.

Mr. Baum is one of the few Maryland collaborative law attorneys whose practice includes using collaborative law in both civil and family cases. If the other side wants to use collaborative law but does not have a collaborative law attorney, he will provide you with a list of other collaborative law attorneys by specialty for the other side to consider.