 | Director of the Legal Practice Unit Ian McCall (centre right) and Col... Director of the Legal Practice Unit Ian McCall (centre right) and Collaborative Law specialist Lorraine Lopich (centre left) are pictured overseeing a role-play activity exploring how to have a court-free divorce. |
Divorce with no bitter court battle? UOW conference explores
4 Aug 2008 | Kate McIlwain
An innovative approach to legal practice, where lawyers do everything they can to keep their clients out of court, was explored in a series of Professional Development seminars held at the UOW Faculty of Law’s Legal Practice Unit.
The final seminar in a series held during July and August for members of the local and regional legal profession featured Collaborative Law specialist Lorraine Lopich. Ms Lopich spoke about ‘collaborative law’ – where lawyers use traditional law skills like negotiation, advocacy, drafting and communication to keep their clients away from litigation.
Instead of lengthy and resentful court battles, collaborative law involves clients problem solving with lawyers and other professionals. The lawyers are trained to guide and assist the clients and take the focus away from issues of blame and purely legal ‘rights’ of each party.
Franca Parolin, a Senior Associate at Kells the Lawyers, attended the seminar and said she was learning a new approach to family law.
“We’re learning to deal with family law cases in a less confrontational way,” she said.
”[Collaborative law] means we might work in a team with other professionals, perhaps financial planners or psychologists, to solve client problems.
In the seminar, guests looked at examples of divorce cases and used role-play to explore how collaborative law can resolve issues.
Ian McCall, Director of the Legal Practice Unit said this collaborative practice is “a very innovative and revolutionary approach to law”. Perhaps the most revolutionary feature of the method is its departure from the courtroom.
“The objective is not to get clients into court,” Mr McCall said.
“If the case does come to an impasse and the client decides that court is the only option, the collaborative lawyer does not continue on the case.”
According to Ms Lopich, the success rate of collaborative law is around 95% and the agreements stick because the parties have negotiated their own resolutions. She said this has a longer lasting result that negotiating court based resolutions.
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