Lawyer Assisted Divorce Negotiation

Traditional lawyer-assisted divorce negotiation takes place within the adversarial process. Lawyers obtain information and instruction from their clients and often negotiate directly between themselves with the threat of court applications always lingering in the background. Sometimes lawyers and clients meet together but more frequently the process resembles a game of ping pong in which one client conveys information and instructions to his or her lawyer who passes that information to opposing counsel. Opposing counsel communicates the information to his or her client and obtains a response. The response is again communicated to the other lawyer who relays the information to his or her client. The response initiates another “volley”, and so on.

This process leaves a great deal of room for misunderstanding, miscommunication and delay. The lawyers at Moe Hannah McNeill LLP find themselves having to negotiate in this traditional way when faced with opposing counsel who is not trained in the collaborative process. However, where there is the option for collaborative negotiation, it is usually recommended.