I had one case that started out extremely adversarily -- the husband had the
wife involuntarily hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital based on his
affidavit, and then filed for divorce, asking for custody. The psychitrists
found her to be perfectly all right, and let her go. When she came to me I
saw that the attorney on the other side was a member of my CL practice
group. Surprisingly, my client, who had picked up my CL brochure in my
waiting room, thought that she and her husband could work collaboratively.
When I spoke to my counterpart, she said she'd talk to her client and see if
he felt they could work collaboratively. He said yes, we all got together
and entered into a participation agreement and, I'm happy to say, it was one
of the most pleasant and productive collaborations I have had so far. Go
figure. Norma Trusch
-----Original Message-----
From: Margaret P. Opatovsky [mailto:mopatovsky@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 9:41 AM
To: CollabLaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [CollabLaw] Can you change midstream?
I have had 2 files where the parties started litigation and then chose the
collaborative option mid-way; in one case with 2 new collaborative lawyers
and in the other with one of the litigation counsel changing hats and
staying on as collaborative lawyer. In each case, we were unable to reach
settlement and the litigation was resumed (as an aside, the litigation cum
collaborative lawyer did withdraw completely when the CL file terminated as
required by the participation agreement).
I have my doubts that this kind of shift can be made given the entrenchment
engendered by litigation. Also, I am skeptical that a client who intends to
represent himself in litigation would have the motivation to make a
wholehearted committment to a collaborative process, even after experiencing
'litigation chill'. I would be interested in hearing from others who have
experienced this situation.
Marg Opatovsky
905-835-1163
----- Original Message -----
From: Marc Hallert
To: Collablaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 9:51 AM
Subject: [CollabLaw] Can you change midstream?
One of the members of our collaborative law group has a client who is
interested in doing the case collaboratively. The client's
husband,however,does not wish to hire an attorney. Assuming the case
must necessarily proceed on a non-collaborative basis, the attorney
asks whether or not the case may later proceed collaboratively should
the husband change his mind after viewing the adversarial process. Any
thoughts?
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