Collaborative Family Law recognizes that, unlike most law suits, divorces and other family law matters involve relationships that have long histories. Many of these connections will also need to extend well into the future, especially when children are involved. Traditional litigation is not set up with these relationships in mind.

Often, more damage is done to parents, children and extended families by the litigated divorce process than by any other event associated with a divorce. For this reason, the collaborative process includes attorneys, mental health professionals and financial professionals as part of the team whose purpose is to guide the parties through this major life transition.

Attorneys

Each party has an attorney to advise him or her on legal issues. Attorney-client relationships are confidential and privileged, just as they are in the litigation model, but that is where the similarity ends.

In the litigation model, the attorney's job is to convince a judge to give his or her client what the client wants at any cost. Typically, this means that the parties are, from the beginning of a case until the end, focused on everything they hate about each other. They feel that they have to present their spouse in the worst possible light so that someone wins and someone loses the case. Sometimes clients are not well educated about their options, so they do not realize that there may be more than one way to get them a satisfactory result. Attorneys who have litigated family law cases know that no one wins and everyone loses - especially children - if relationships are destroyed by the fight.

Attorneys practicing Collaborative Family Law have received specialized training to convert their advocacy skills from those used in litigation to those that better serve the cooperative effort in which the parties and the collaborative team are engaged. Collaborative Family Law attorneys are taught to refocus the parties on their common goals: to be able to meet their future financial needs; to have well-adjusted children who get the very best of what each parent has to offer; and to be able to move forward with their lives in a way that causes a little disruption and trauma as possible.

Mental Health Professionals

Psychologists, Social Workers and Professional Counselors can be involved in Collaborative Family Law cases in several roles as a neutral professional. Mental health professionals are not engaged to provide therapy, but may serve a variety of roles, depending on the clients' needs. Clients' overall expenses are typically reduced when the full team's participation is not required, since only the least-expensive, most qualified person will be providing services.

• Communications Facilitator. Divorcing couples are often challenged to communicate effectively with their spouse as they navigate the divorce process. Often, emotions are raw, and long-standing communication patterns don't often improve during this phase of the relationship. Typically, a mental health professional acting as a communications facilitator attends and manages joint meetings as needed to ensure that the discussion remains productive and focused on the future. Additionally, the mental health professional is available to work with the divorcing couple, individually or together, outside of the joint meetings as specific issues arise. He or she can assist spouses in identifying their interests, and communicating them as effectively as possible; help clients discharge emotions that may be keeping them from making wise decisions otherwise; and help reality test expectations.
• Child Specialist. When children are involved, the mental health professional is often a valuable resource in the development of a parenting plan that meets the developmental needs of each child. Neutral mental health professionals can also be retained to perform testing on parents and children, and to provide opinions that assist parents in finding ways to best meet their children's developmental, social and educational needs.
• Post-Divorce Coach. The Collaborative Family Law process allows couples to experience dealing with each other in a way that promotes respect, honesty and compassion. Ideally, divorcing couples are assisted by the mental health professional in establishing parameters for a constructive new, post-divorce relationship.

In the collaborative process, mental health professionals are hired jointly by the parties, so they maintain their neutrality. Often, clients meet (together or separately) with the collaborative mental health professional outside of joint meetings to make the most efficient use of the team's time and the clients' resources.

Financial Professionals

Neutral financial professionals such as Certified Public Accountants (CPA), Certified Divorce Financial Advisors (CDFP) and money managers help the parties organizing and working with financial information during their collaborative divorce. They help the parties to gather, organize, identify, understand and analyze financial information relevant to their property division.

Qualified financial neutrals can provide specialized financial and tax advice concerning the impact of legal decisions on each party's current and future financial condition. Some financial professionals trained in the Collaborative Family Law process also bring specialized expertise to cases involving valuation and property classification ("tracing"). Many times the financial expert will help clients understand numbers, predict their future needs and create a range of options they and their collaborative attorneys may wish to consider in considering possible agreements.

In the collaborative process, financial professionals are hired jointly by the parties, so they maintain their neutrality. Collaborative Family Law financial professionals are compensated strictly on a fee-for- service basis, so their compensation for their involvement in the collaborative process cannot be tied to the sale of investment products, investment advice or commissions. Often, clients meet (together or separately) with the collaborative financial professional outside of joint meetings to make the most efficient use of the team's time and the clients' resources.