The History of Collaborative Divorce

Collaborative Divorce represents a paradigm shift in the approaches to divorce proceedings that   eschews a confrontationist approach  to the one that  represents an acceptance of commitment on the part of both the professionals and clients to work together to resolve the conflicts that creep in such proceedings. It is an evolving process that contains within itself the core objective of helping the couples to end their marriage without destroying their family.

1.1: Historical Foundations of Collaborative Divorce

The historical root of collaborative divorce could be found in the following values and principles:

• In the course of the divorce proceedings, Initiate and sustain a healing process that would minimize the hurt and not destroy the family
• An all round respect and dignity not only for those involved in the dispute but also the other professionals engaged in the mediatory process
• Direct and open communication at all levels in which relevant and valuable information are disclosed in a voluntary manner that would aid in the making up of the agreement and applying of interest based negotiation principles that would meet the needs of both the parties

1.2: Collaborative Law

Collaborative divorce has evolved on the collaborative law. Collaborative law has been developed by the American Bar Association. It has developed it on four-way agreement principles the essential elements of which are:

• The parties commit to a settlement without the intervention of a court of law
• If in the process of being engaged in arriving at a settlement, the negotiations break down, the lawyers representing both the sides would withdraw from not only representing their clients but also from involving themselves in any court proceedings relating to them.

1.3: Conclusions

Based on some of the cardinal principles discussed above, the collaborative divorce process can take different forms. Thus, the parties involved can take two trained collaborative attorneys or one of them has the option of selecting a trained collaborative attorney while the other who does not have such an attorney but willing to serve the collaboration participation agreement (PA). It can also comprise of an interdisciplinary team, inter alia, of mental health and finance professionals. Whatever may be the model, the fundamental values and principles that govern them remain the same which are respect and dignity all around and ‘client welfare centered ‘approaches’. The history, in a nut shell, talks about different forms and approaches based on collaborative fundamentals.