Collaborative

Our experienced lawyers are trained to help couples sort out things they disagree on.

Collaborative
Head of our family team, Jonathan da Costa, Joanna Illingworth and Zoey Arscott, are Boys & Maughan’s collaborative practitioners and amongst an increasing number of lawyers across the country who firmly believe this approach is most likely to achieve the best possible solutions for clients and their families.

Collaborative is a process where both parties commit to resolving their arrangements without resorting to court proceedings. It is often used for divorce, dissolution or separation but is equally useful for other family issues.

Each person appoints their own specially trained collaborative lawyer and the couple meet with their lawyers to work things out face to face, usually at either solicitor’s office. There is no need to ever go to court.

The couple decide what they want to talk about, not the lawyers, who instead guide the detail of those discussions. Each lawyer can give legal advice because they are not neutral, unlike a mediator.

Legal advice will be constructively given as part of the process. Jonathan, Joanna and Zoey will focus on your interests and generating options. Each lawyer will encourage an appreciation of the separating couple’s concerns and maintain a calm, constructive and respectful approach throughout the negotiations, whilst being solution focused.

Collaborative divorce will encourage you to look at the wider picture and seek improved outcomes for the whole family. Your children’s welfare will always be prioritised.

Other professionals, such as jointly instructed financial advisers, accountants or child consultants, can be invited to meetings if you both agree it is appropriate and helpful, and Jonathan, Joanna or Zoey can assist with referrals to specialists with appropriate skills.

In addition to the clear focus and integrity you would expect from any good solicitor, you can also expect a collaborative lawyer to pay particular attention to being supportive, creative and flexible.

Both you and your partner should emerge from collaborative not only satisfied with the outcome but also the process.

We discuss collaborative in more detail in our guide to divorce, dissolution and separation which you can download here.

In 2014 the Law Society selected Jonathan for a national advertising campaign highlighting our best practice approach to divorce and separation. Click play to see the three minute film that was made about Jonathan da Costa and one of his clients using the collaborative process.

Contact us
Phone us on 01843 234010 or drop us a line via our contact page and it will be treated in strictest confidence. We can meet you at any of our local offices.

Reading
Boys and Maughan are members of Resolution, a national organisation of family lawyers committed to non-confrontational divorce, separation and other family problems. They have prepared some helpful guides to some of the common questions clients ask that you may wish to download.