The Collaborative Team Process

Professionals Involved

In a CTP negotiation, the first point of contact can be any of the professionals involved: the Lawyers, the Divorce Coach, the Parenting Coach or the Financial Specialist.

Both parties need to voluntarily agree to participate for a CTP case to begin. Anyone can approach your spouse about the process but we find spouses are often more comfortable with a neutral member of the team approaching them such as the Divorce Coach, Parenting Coach or Financial Specialist. If you feel you or your lawyer will more effectively educate your spouse about the benefits of the process, you certainly can do it.

It is not a CTP case until both parties have retained lawyers who are trained in the Collaborative Team Practice process. All of the professionals listed on this website have training in the process.

The lawyers act as facilitators for constructive communications and negotiations. They provide legal advice so you will both know the range of outcome at Family Court. Your lawyer will also ensure a legally binding agreement is produced. Although each lawyer represents their own client's interests, they are also seeking a long lasting agreement that is acceptable to both parties. The lawyers have training in "interest based negotiation" (a technique often used in mediation). The lawyers help the clients discover their core concerns, brainstorm potential solutions that meet each client's core concerns and eventually evaluate the viable solutions until a resolution is achieved.

Participation Agreement

Before negotiations begin, both parties and their lawyers must sign a "Participation Agreement". This agreement commits everyone to reach a settlement without going to Court. The agreement also requires both parties to make a full and honest disclosure of all financial and relevant information and to treat each other respectfully throughout the whole process. The Participation Agreement defines how the process will work so is a very important document indeed.

The Participation Agreement has to be signed by the other professionals as well. The Divorce Coach ensures that this occurs. Everyone is contractually committed to negotiating an agreement outside of the Court process.

A key element of the Participation Agreement is that if one of the parties chooses to end the process and go to Court, both parties have to retain new professionals including lawyers. This element of the agreement is crucial to the process because it crystallizes everyone's deep commitment to reaching a settlement.

What the Divorce Coach does

Emotions are intense during a divorce. As a result, the Divorce Coach will work with both parties to move through the stages of divorce, to learn new ways to communicate with their spouse and to be emotionally prepared for the negotiations. If emotions are ignored, they often sidetrack the negotiations causing delay and driving up the costs of the process.

The Divorce Coach may meet with the parties individually or together, in advance of or after any joint meetings to help the clients manage their emotions. The Divorce Coach has numerous practical tools they will use to help their clients work through their emotions and to learn how to better communicate with their spouse. The Divorce Coach also manages the case to ensure homework is done and progress is being made.

At the first meeting, the parties, their two lawyers and the Divorce Coach will ensure the Participation Agreement is signed, determine if other professionals are needed (such as the Parenting Coach and Financial Specialist), list the issues to be resolved and negotiate a resolution to any urgent issues.

What the Financial Specialist and Parenting Coach Do

A Financial Specialist is jointly retained to assist the parties to collect the relevant financial information and to explore settlement options. The Financial Specialist will meet with the parties individually and together to work through many of the financial issues such as the division of property and support issues. The Financial Specialist effectively deals with financial issues because they are neutral. Often when clients do financial statements with their own lawyers, it leads to conflicts and problems. By working with the Financial Specialist together, the clients effectively avoid many conflicts thus saving themselves thousands of dollars, months or years of fighting and a lot of grief.

The Parenting Coach helps the parents develop a parenting plan that is in the best interests of the children. Recent research about children of divorce is shared with the parents so they can make the best decisions for their children. Also, the Parenting Coach brings the children's voice to the process and will sometimes even meet with the children to get their perspective on the issues. Instead of looking backwards and trying to put blame on your children's other parent, the Parenting Coach will help you work together with your spouse, to ensure your children's best future.

If the Parenting Coach or Financial Specialist has an issue that they are unable to resolve with the clients, they will call a meeting with the lawyers and/or Divorce Coach so as to negotiate a resolution.

If a voluntary agreement is still not achieved, the clients can retain an arbitrator who will resolve it for them, just like a judge does, but in a more cost-effective manner.

The Financial Specialist will eventually generate a report and the Parenting Coach will eventually generate a parenting plan. The Financial Specialist's report will normally outline how the family's assets and debt will be divided and whether either party will pay the other support.

The Parenting Coach's parenting plan outlines the time the children will spend with each of you, how important decisions will be made and how future conflict will be minimized.

These reports are reviewed by the clients with their lawyers to ensure the agreements reached are within the normal range of result according to the law and they are practical solutions to the issues.

The lawyers will then develop a Separation Agreement that incorporates the Financial Specialist's report and the Parenting Plan into it. The Separation Agreement is usually reviewed together and signed together. The Separation Agreement is a legally binding agreement that governs your relationship with your spouse even after your divorce.

Why CTP Makes Sense

This team process may, at first, sound more expensive, but in reality it is much cheaper than the Court process and is usually less expensive than negotiations between two lawyers. Why? When working through the financial issues you will be sharing the cost of one Financial Specialist rather than each paying for your own lawyers to do the same work. Likewise, you will share the cost of the Parenting Coach instead of each of you retaining an expert and paying your lawyers to battle it out. The Divorce Coach will help you keep the emotional issues from sabotaging or prolonging the negotiations, saving you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in legal fees. The role of the lawyers is minimized to offering legal advice and preparing the resulting separation agreement thus keeping your legal fees to a minimum as well.

CTP just makes sense. You get the help you need rather than spending your time, money and energy fighting. In other words, you are getting a team of experts working to find the best solution for your whole family rather than each of you assembling a band of warriors focused on waging war against your spouse.

In addition to saving you money, CTP will result in a better settlement: a win – win solution. As a result, you and your spouse will likely be able to preserve your relationship with one another. Perhaps it is hard to believe now, but it's true. The result is a much healthier situation for your children.