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A joint effort

05 August 2011 / Graham Coy
Issue: 7477 / Categories: Features , Divorce , Family
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Graham Coy sings the praises of collaborative law

“There has got to be a better way than this.” How many times have clients said this when, eventually, they reach the end of court proceedings about their divorce, their children or their finances? Their view is often shared by their lawyers and even by the judges who have to make decisions where no agreement can be reached. The answer to the question is “yes”, there is a better way and it is “collaborative law”. This article will look at the nature and size of the problem, what collaborative law is and what it can offer.

High divorce rate

In 2009, there were 113,949 divorces, in other words over 250,000 people were caught up in the legal process. According to the court service, nearly 100,000 children under 16 were also involved in court proceedings started by one or other of their parents.
To put this into some perspective, this is more than the populations of some of our largest cities, Southampton, Leicester and Newcastle. What

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

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Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

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Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
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