At Rebecca L. Palmer Law Group, we guide families through the Collaborative Law process using a confidential, non-adversarial team approach to help spouses reach a fair divorce or custody agreement outside of court while protecting long-term family relationships.

In contrast to traditional litigation that inevitably leads to hurt feelings and destroyed families well after litigation has concluded, the collaborative law process seeks to preserve the family relationship long term by establishing common goals and interests of individual families.

The essence of the Collaborative Process is the shared belief that it is in the family’s best interests to commit to a non-litigation process. It is a non-adversarial dispute resolution process and relies on cooperation, integrity, and professionalism geared toward the future well-being of the family.

The Collaborative Law Process is a clearly-defined team approach that takes place in a confidential and private environment. The team consists of you and your spouse, each of your attorneys, a mental health neutral, and a financial neutral. The key to these negotiations is that all persons present — each spouse and his or her attorney — are free to (and in fact are expected to) participate in a positive and open discussion that has an agreeable resolution as its ultimate goal.

Although individual circumstances will vary, collaborative law may provide a quicker and less expensive method of resolving a dispute when compared with traditional family law litigation. Ordinarily, both spouses and their attorneys sign a “no court” or similar collaborative agreement setting the ground rules and that requires the attorneys to withdraw from the case if a settlement is not reached and the case goes to court.