Collaborative Practice Canberra
Collaborative Practice
What is Collaborative Practice?
Collaborative Practice offers families that are separating a different way to resolve their dispute. Collaborative Practice involves a team comprising clients, financial, mental health and legal professionals, working together to negotiate mutually acceptable solutions.
Collaborative Practice is client centred and client controlled.
It is based upon constructive communication and requires the active participation of the parties focused on the needs and interests of the clients.
Collaborative Practice requires that the client and all the professionals agree not to go to Court. In the event that the matter does not resolve in the collaboarative process, the professionals are disqualified from representing the parties in any subsequent Court proceedings.
The various professionals that participate in Collaborative Practice are required to:
- Assist the clients to communicate effectively about their hopes and what is important to each of them;
- Assist the clients in communicating effectively about their respective concerns and the questions they need to answer;
- Assist the clients to gather the information that the clients need in order to make informed decisions;
- Assist the clients to generate options; and
- Assist the clients to evaluate options.
Collaborative Practice is based on interest based negotiation techniques. The process moves forward via structured and managed meetings with the overall goal to reach a mutually agreeable settlement.
Collaborative Practice has been practiced in the USA and Canada since the early 1990’s and more recently in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Europe.
Collaborative Practice offers many distinctive advantages.
- The clients control the process;
- There is no Court involvement;
- Children’s needs are given priority;
- The clients commit to reaching an Agreement through the process;
- The discussions occur in a respectful environment;
- There is a full disclosure of information;
- The process proceeds at a pace determined by the clients.