Note that information given in this section cannot take the place of a lawyer. For legal advice about your specific situation, you must consult a qualified divorce lawyer. See our disclaimer.

"My husband says we'll save a lot of money using the collaborative approach because we will share a lawyer. Is that really how collaborative law works?"

The intention of collaborative law, as with mediation, is to provide an alternative to an adversarial court battle, but the parties cannot share a lawyer in collaborate law. If you wish to engage in a Collaborative Divorce, you must each find a collaboratively trained divorce attorney who is willing to sign an agreement that if the case does not settle, he or she will not represent you in a court battle. There must be a signed Collaborative Agreement. If a lawyer tells you he or she can work "collaboratively" with your spouse's attorney, without the risks and rewards of the Collaborative Participation contract, it is not truly a collaborative matter. Such a lawyer may be more concerned with preserving his or her opportunity to earn fees in litigation, and this may be an impediment to the success of the process.

Collaborative law may be less expensive than a court trial, but it is usually not inexpensive. Each spouse must hire his or her own collaborative lawyer who will attend meetings with the other spouse and his/her attorney. The parties may each hire forensic accountants, appraisers, child-custody evaluators, vocational evaluators, or whatever else is needed to address the issues. Although this process is meant to promote settlement, with all of the meetings and the stream of experts, it can become very expensive. The advantage to this process as compared with litigation is that the discussions are held in private, but discovery takes place and information may come out that would make the process less private and confidential than mediation.

Mari Frank is an attorney, mediator, collaborative lawyer and Certified Privacy Professional. She teaches negotiation and mediation at the University of California in Irvine and is a Certified Trainer of lawyers for the State Bar of California. She can be reached at (949) 364-1511. View her website and Divorce Magazine profile.