Collaborative Practice Family Law

Stephania is a strong advocate for Collaborative Practice and for her clients. Stephania will work hard to empower you to make decisions that are right for you and your family members or others involved. Collaborative Practice for the resolution of your divorce or other civil matter is a more civilized and values-based mode of getting you from where you are to where you want to go. Collaborative Law focuses on the needs of you, the legal consumer, not on compliance to an adversarial court process. You control the process, the agenda and the decisions at the four-way mediation sessions, where most of the work is done by you and your team.

Collaborative Divorce — A Viable Alternative to Court

The Collaborative Practice model resolution of your divorce or other issues in a civilized and respectful manner can help maintain family ties, reduce costs and keep you out of court. In a Collaborative Practice divorce, the combativeness of litigation is replaced by a cooperative process, which gives families resources and options unavailable in traditional divorce models. Collaborative Practice is no-court divorce, and so much more.

Team Approach

Collaborative Practice always involves a team of four people: you, your partner, and special collaboratively trained counsel for each partner. In Collaborative Practice most of the work is done in the four-way team meetings. The clients determine the issues with the aid of the professional team. In some cases the team may include more than four; for example, if a family business or other assets need to be valued and divided, the couple/parties jointly hire one collaboratively trained financial expert to help evaluate the financial aspects of the case.

Tools to Communicate Effectively

You are given the support and tools to communicate more effectively during the process. Also there is usually a collaboratively trained Communications Coach to assist you and your spouse or other party to effectively communicate with each other at the four-way meetings. Usually taking the fight out of your words — “saying what you mean without being mean” — goes a long way towards supporting you to reach your goals by communicating effectively. You are given the support and tools to communicate more effectively during the process. And Collaborative Practice can be particularly helpful in protecting your children, since there are collaboratively trained child specialists to ascertain their needs during and after the change of marital status. Collaborative Practice is no-court divorce, and so much more.

You Are In Control of the Outcome

Through Collaborative Practice, individuals are well-informed, and in a good position to make lifelong decisions about their future and the future of their children. No-court divorce creates an opportunity for “win-win” solutions to occur, instead of putting your future in the hands of well-meaning jurists, who have many cases on their calendars. Finding the type of legal modality that best suits your needs is paramount.

Resolution built by those bound
is more satisfactory and likely to stand.

— Stephania Francone

Finding the Right Attorney for You

Choosing a Collaborative Law attorney or collaboratively trained mediating attorney you feel comfortable with and who is able to support and honor your values is also of utmost importance.

To learn more about Collaborative Practice visit the links, and by all means give Stephania a call at 831 684-1077 to set up an initial appointment.

Discourage litigation. Point out to your neighbor
how the nominal winner is often the real loser —
in fees, expense, and waste of time.

— Abraham Lincoln, 1850

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