Collaborative Divorce Texas

  • Donate
  • For Professionals
    • Membership Advantages
    • Events/Training
    • Become a Member
    • For Students
    • Volunteer at CDT
    • Advertise With Us
  • Contact Us
  • Login
  • Home
  • Find a Collaborative Professional
  • What is a Collaborative Divorce?
    • What is Collaborative Divorce?
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • About CDTexas
    • Master and Credentialed Collaborative Divorce Professionals
    • The Gay G. Cox Award for Excellence in Collaborative Law
  • Blog
  • For Collaborative Professionals
    • Membership Benefits
    • Events/Training
    • Become a Member
    • For Students
    • Advertise With Us
    • Volunteer at CDT
    • Login
  • Donate
  • Contact Us
  • What is Collaborative Divorce?
    • What is Collaborative Divorce?
    • Why Use a CDTexas Member?
    • About Us
    • Master and Credentialed Collaborative Divorce Professionals
    • The Gay G. Cox Award for Excellence in Collaborative Law
  • Testimonials
  • FAQs
  • Blog
  • Find A Professional
    • How Do I Choose a Collaborative Professional?
    • Attorneys
    • Financial Professionals
    • Mental Health Professionals
    • See All

Donate

You are here: Home / Blog / Understanding How The Collaborative Process Works

Understanding How The Collaborative Process Works

June 16, 2022 By Melinda Eitzen

According to the statute, we get into collaborative by signing a participation agreement. If you’re not working under the family law statute, you’re just signing a contract to enroll you into the process in a case such as a probate matter or a civil litigation dispute. The statute says collaborative means you have dedicated settlement counsel and must have two lawyers. We sign a participation agreement that says the collaborative lawyers will not be litigation counsel if this opts out of collaborative. By requirement of the statue, they will have to change lawyers and it cannot be a lawyer in the same firm. This exists in the collaborative process because we typically meet and ask the clients to state their true interests, concerns, goals, and to be honest.

We should not be able to use that against them in a litigation setting later. As an example, let’s say I represent Susie and she’s getting a divorce from Joe Bob. In the collaborative setting we meet with Joe Bob, Susie, myself, Jo Bob’s lawyer, and typically a neutral mental health professional and a neutral financial professional. We meet either in person or on zoom and we’re going to ask Susie and Joe Bob to tell us their goals.

Collaborative Process

Then at a future meeting as we develop possible solutions for their case, we’re going to ask them to tell us what they like and don’t like about various options. It’s important that this be a safe space and that I not be allowed to use that against Joe Bob later. Like mediation, it’s highly confidential and nothing we say can be repeated in court. However, in mediation we are typically not face to face.

The collaborative statute also says that there is no formal discovery and instead we provide full transparency and full disclosure of any information. The idea of no discovery has always been attractive, more so with the new automatic disclosure rules that went into place January 1st in Texas.

In civil cases where there is no statute, this is all included in the contract.

 The neutral mental health professional commonly on the collaborative team serves as the leader of the team and of the meetings. They facilitate all our meetings and carry us through our agenda. They are there to help us manage the emotion that gets in the way. They are also the leader of the conversation regarding the parenting time schedule if children are involved.

We also have a neutral financial professional. They lead the conversations about money, gather all the financial information, and build a spreadsheet that we all use. It may sound expensive, but what’s happening is fee shifting from the lawyers to these neutral professionals. When we don’t have a neutral financial professional the lawyers are individually gathering financial information and building a spreadsheet. In collaborative, I let the financial neutral do that and so does the other lawyer. Typically, the financial professional is a lower hourly rate than the lawyers and now only one person is doing the work. Fee shifting happens with the mental health professional when they meet with Susie and Joe Bob without the lawyers present. They put together most of the parenting time schedule with the lawyers advising in the background and participating more fully if they hit a roadblock. This neutral is typically also at a lower hourly rate than either of the lawyers.

At our State Bar collaborative conferences, we occasionally have panels of live clients that have participated in the collaborative process, and they tell us multiple different reasons that people are attracted to collaborative; a surprising one being privacy. I can understand that concern if someone is famous, but most of my clients are not famous. Even so they want their personal business kept private. Both professionals and clients are attracted to collaborative for different reasons. Being creative in our solutions is something I and most clients love, being only limited by our imaginations.

About Melinda Eitzen

With a passion for helping people through difficult times, Melinda Eitzen is an attorney on the forefront of the Collaborative Divorce movement in Texas. Highly experienced in all facets of family law, Melinda has presented lectures and authored articles, and books on the collaborative process in Family Law.

Filed Under: Blog, Our-Featured-Authors Tagged With: Collaborative Process, Divorce, participation agreement

Find a Professional

Getting started with the Collaborative Process?

First your need to connect with a trained Collaborative Professional.

[Find Out More....]

Articles by Category

Featured Video

  • Child of Divorce
  • Collaborative Divorce Testimonial

Why Collaborative?

  • Jennifer Leister
  • Steve Walker
  • Carla Calabrese
  • Dawn Budner
  • Becky Davenport
  • Jody Johnson
  • Honey Schef
  • James Urmin
  • Kurt Chacon
  • Natalie Gregg
  • Robert Matlock
  • Deborah Lyons
  • Carlos Salinas
  • Camille Scroggins
  • Linda Solomon
  • Richard Soat
  • Lisa Rothfus
  • Jeffrey Shore
  • Barbara Cole
  • David Brunson
  • Jennifer Tull
  • Syd Sh
  • Susan Z. Wright
  • Christi Trusler
  • Camille Milnser
  • Linda Threats
  • Sarah Keathley
  • MaryAnn Kildebeck
  • David Bouschor
  • LIsa Marquis
  • Harry Munsinger
  • Vicki James
  • Robin Watts
  • Katie Berry
  • Jack Emmott
  • Jennifer Broussard
  • Patricia Havard
  • Paula Locke Smyth
  • Laura Schlenker
  • Norma Trusch
  • Brett Christiansen
  • Tim Whitten
  • Mickey Gayler
  • Melinsa Eitzen
  • Julian Schwartz
  • MaryAnn Knolle
  • Chad Olsen
  • Chris Farish
  • Charles Quaid
  • Anne Shuttee
  • Barbara Runge
  • Rhonda Cleaves -
  • Jamie Patterson
  • Catherine Baron
  • Kristen Algert
  • Sandra Roland
  • Rhonda Cleaves 2
  • Gratia Schoemakers

Have you read?

5 Keys to Financial Planning for Divorce

No one expects to get divorced when they marry, but half of all American marriages end in divorce.  Because Texas is a community property state, all marital property is divided during a divorce.  … [Read More...]

More Articles from this Category

The Collaborative Law Institute of Texas

d/b/a
Collaborative Divorce Texas

Proud Members of IACP

1400 Preston Road
Suite 400
Plano, TX 75093
(972) 386-0158

Please note: Our office will be closed on

Holiday closures:
Limited: Nov. 23rd & 24th
Closed: Nov. 25th , 26th and 27th

Christmas:
Closed from December 24-December 30, 2022.
Offices open on January 2nd, 2023.


Website Terms of Usage

Contact Our Webmaster

 

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo
  • YouTube

Search Our Website

Find A Professional

  • Find a Collaborative Professional
  • Attorneys
  • Financial Professionals
  • Mental Health Professionals
  • See All
EnglishFrançaisDeutschItalianoPortuguêsEspañol

Copyright © 2023 · Collaborative Divorce Texas · All Rights Reserved

· · ·

Web Design and Maintenance by The Crouch Group