Collaborative Law

In a Collaborative Law case, both clients and both attorneys agree to work constructively toward an agreement without resorting to a battle in court. If either party goes to court, both parties’ attorneys must resign and any information from experts that was obtained through the collaborative process is disqualified and cannot be used by the parties in court.  The essence of this process is to work toward finding a reasonable solution that all parties can accept without escalating the conflict by going to court, increasing legal costs, or destroying the parties’ already fragile relationship.  This is especially important in divorces and same-sex relationship dissolutions where the parties must maintain a working relationship in order to continue to successfully co-parent their children.  

At Wilson, Marino & Bonnevie we have always tried to resolve cases without escalating the conflict believing that court is costly both financially and emotionally. By employing a Collaborative Law model, we can now work with other attorneys to find creative and meaningful solutions to difficult problems with all parties aware that resorting to court will have immediate negative consequences for them.