Cathy -
Thank you for your generosity. I look forward to reviewing your
documents.
Janice
Cathy Regier wrote:
Janice;begin:vcard
I am part of the group in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada and we have perhaps
gone a step further than most of the groups I have read about. We decided
right off that we would share everything in an attempt to standardize the
information going to everyone's client.
Our process here generally follows the following outline. When a client
comes in for an initial interview, we give them the three process choices -
litigation, mediation or collaborative (which we call CFL for short). If
the client chooses CFL (which is about 98%of the time) we immediately send
out a letter to the spouse. The letter states that their spouse has been in
to see a lawyer and wants to deal with the divorce amicably. It sets out
the process choices briefly and it includes a list of the CFL lawyers in our
group. When the spouse goes in to see one of the CFL lawyers in the group,
he or she gets the same process choices information. If they buy in, we
begin to set up the first meeting between lawyers, and the first four-way
meeting.
We have a number of standard handouts that we give to every CFL client -
from homework to information about the CFL process. We also have standard
guidelines that each of the CFL lawyers follows to prepare their client for
the first CFL meeting. Then we can tell our clients in all honesty that
their spouse is getting exactly the same preparation for the first meeting.
We also have a standard CFL contract to be signed by all four participants.
While it is very similar to the contract posted earlier, we have tried to
put it in more simplified language, with less legalese, so that the clients
can understand it more easily. (Those of us who drafted it are big
proponents of "plain language drafting") We are working on a standardized
final contract, so that the lawyers don't end up haggling over how clauses
should be worded.
We have talked about Sherri's question about what to do when the "jerk"
spouse does something outside of the process, that forces the other party to
terminate the CFL process. We have included in our Contract a clause which
indicates that upon deciding to terminate the process, the person
terminating must give notice in writing, and cannot bring a Court
application for 30 days. Our reasoning was that if the person terminating
brings an application within 30 days, the respondent could point to the CFL
contract and get an adjournment for the 30 day period. If the person
terminating feels that it is an emergency, they bring their application
immediately, but then must convince the Court that it is an emergency
requiring immediate action. Once the Court is convinced, the application
could proceed within the 30 day time period. When we were having our
discussion, the exact situation that Sherri brought up was discussed and we
all felt that the Court would consider that an emergency requiring immediate
action.
In relation to the issue of confidentiality, the position we have taken is
that, once involved in the CFL process, the lawyers owe confidentiality to
the process, but not as between the parties. In other words, if we are
going to do this CFL, everything must be shared, including the decision to
terminate.
I will attach a number of our shared documents (all in Word format), and you
are free to review them and use them as you see fit - as are any other
groups that like the look of them. You will be able to see that we have
stolen unabashedly from any and every source we could get our hands on!
Because of the number of family law lawyers who are practising CFL in
Medicine Hat, almost all of our new files (and as many old ones as we could
convince) are being handled in this manner. It sure has made family law an
nicer place to be!!!
If you have any questions about the documents, feel free to ask.
Cathy Regier
<<Collaborative Law Contract.doc>> <<Ground Rules for the Client.doc>>
<<Guidelines for ACFL(MH).doc>> <<Homework List - CFL.doc>> <<What is
Collaborative Family Law.doc>> <<Spouse - process choices.doc>>
-----Original Message-----
From: Janice Pardue [SMTP:jpardue@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2001 2:13 PM
To: CollabLaw
Subject: [CollabLaw] Protocols
Hi, everyone -
As collaborative law is fairly new in Texas and especially in Houston, we
are working toward establishing protocols under which to operate. It
would be a huge help if those of you who are farther along on the
experience curve could share with us any protocols that you have
developed. Your experiences would be invaluable to us who can learn from
them.
If you want to share them, please -email them to me or fax them to me at
713-526-7974, and I will see that they are distributed here in Houston.
Thanks for your assistance and guidance.
Janice
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Collaborative Law Contract.doc
Collaborative Law Contract.doc Type: WINWORD File (application/msword)
Encoding: base64
Name: Ground Rules for the Client.doc
Ground Rules for the Client.doc Type: WINWORD File (application/msword)
Encoding: base64
Name: Guidelines for ACFL(MH).doc
Guidelines for ACFL(MH).doc Type: WINWORD File (application/msword)
Encoding: base64
Name: Homework List - CFL.doc
Homework List - CFL.doc Type: WINWORD File (application/msword)
Encoding: base64
Name: What is Collaborative Family
Law.doc
What is Collaborative Family Law.doc Type: WINWORD File
(application/msword)
Encoding: base64
Name: Spouse - process choices.doc
Spouse - process choices.doc Type: WINWORD File (application/msword)
Encoding: base64
