Privacy in a collaborative law divorce

One of the other amazing things that we have found, and the funny thing is, the lawyers didn’t get this at the beginning…. one of the huge issues for folks going through this terrible time is privacy. Privacy and confidentiality are two major things that are major components of the collaborative process. What goes on in the meetings is not to be utilized even if the case fails and goes to litigation. The discussions are not to be utilized in litigation. It’s very similar to parties who mediate, what happens in mediation is not something that can be used in litigation. The purpose of that, same with settlement conferences, don’t get to use the information exchanged and the deals presented back and forth in litigation. The reason for that concept is so that the parties have a safer environment in which to really express themselves, and we go back to active listening. And the neat thing about collaborative law is we get to engage in active listening over a course of time so that parties can move through it at their own emotional pace, so that their listening skills are to the point that they’re really engaged and the decision-making becomes so much easier.