Family Attorney

DOVER - The character of an office in an industrial zone insignificant offers a breath of what’s happening beyond a number of closed doors. “Warning: Apart from this organization may graphics and sensitive equipment.”

Here, the Delaware State Police Forensic experts computers seized pierce the drive to ferret out child pornography and other evidence of the sexual exploitation of children online.

And now, the Delaware Child Predator Task Force investigations can move more quickly, thanks to a new Announced cooperation between public authorities Attorney General’s Office and the judiciary throughout the Delaware.

On Wednesday, Attorney General Beau Biden occurred Security and Homeland Security Secretary David B. Mitchell and the National Police Col. Thomas F. MacLeish reveal new offices and announce that almost every police station in Delaware, the community effort, The State makes investigation and prosecution of resources under one roof.

Deputy Attorney General Donald Roberts opened an office in the building, adjacent to the office of the National Police Lt. Robert Moses, located in the high-tech crime.

“What previously could not last for several weeks now a day for a decision and punishment for an arrest,” said Biden.

The office space for members of the task force’s house district has been provided with a financial assistance of $ 250000 US Department of Justice. The grant also helped to pay for staff training.

The Task Force was established in June of Delaware Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. It investigates complaints and referrals inhabitants, the judiciary and the National Center for Missing and children, and also conducts online surveys.

Forensic within the House of computers are demanding, each listing “Fred” - Recovery of Forensic Evidence Device.

If a computer seized during an investigation, the hard disk is removed and that one of the machines FRED.

The computer is able to make an exact copy of the hard drive of suspects without him - a process that changes the hard drive and can be deleted files.

Forensic experts can pierce the copy in respect for the integrity of the hard drive of origin.

The software takes care FRED can recognize that the images can be disguised in the form of Microsoft Word documents or other formats.

This allows investigators, and thus limit their complaints compliance with the limit values, in the quest for secure.

Literally dozens of computers are stacked in a room in the vicinity of evidence.

Everyone expects an analysis of the hard drive.

Officials request of the situation of officers not to disclose, because of the sensitive nature of employment, it goes further.

This sensitivity is also evident in the art room, where investigators confronted with images that most people would be troublesome too upsetting.

An officer drew a little girl who is next to the computer screen. Of him, saying: “It should not harm a child.”

For a limited time, the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP) offers a free, downloadable “Knowledge Collaborative Divorce Kit.” The kit is available for individuals is not the model of collaborative divorce. It explains what the non-judicial collaborative process and includes a “divorce vs. Litigation Collaborative Divorce” chart that directly compare the two models and updates to case studies.

In the award-winning film at the Oscars, “Juno", the husband (played by Jason Bateman), said: “We can not Collaborative divorce. Look, I have all the anger. “He’s right. Ago twenty times higher than that of collaborative professionals now only ten years.” And this explosion “is changing, how people from Canada to divorce the Far East.

One reason is that people appreciate how Collaborative believes that the process of divorce, the court and interested parties who can control the whole process. The result is for both sides positive results for all parties involved - including children.

Another advantage is much less emotional stress, during and after divorce.

But is it a divorce Collaborative a viable alternative to a process of divorce? The answer lies in a downloadable, free called “Collaborative Knowledge Kit divorce.” This kit was of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP). IACP is an international non-profit, which focus on public awareness and professionals through Collaborative Practice.

The free “Knowledge Collaborative Divorce Kit” explains how the cooperative model works, and what is feared, in the process. It contains case studies of families who are cooperative and their results. In addition, it contains a chart easy access to judicial cooperation is excluded.

The kit is available free for a limited time, by the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP) Website: www.collaborativepractice.com / Kit.

To learn more about the Collaborative Divorce, please refer to the documents accompanying the article “Collaborative Divorce - Redefining their families, instead Breaking Apart".

About Talia L. Katz:
Talia L. Katz, JD, the Executive Director of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP), and an international non-profit, which focus on public awareness and professionals through Collaborative Practice. She spent fifteen years as a family law forensisch act before it is practical for Collaborative lawyer.

In addition to Linux installations in banks and brokerage firms, the business of the operation, it is strongly in the act. Cooperation is the key word, and suddenly, the developers of Linux, they are distinguished by their leaders.

NEW YORK CITY (Beta News) - Cooperation between managers and developers has been the subject of a panel session on the Linux on Wall Street with speakers today showed the Bank of New York Mellon Software Freedom Law Center, Alfresco project, and the Collaborative Software Institute (CSI).

Stan Rose of the Bank of New York Mellon credited with the need for the government and compliance with the regulations originally drawn together with the technology and business in the financial services sector.

Now, about a project known as “bits", technology and program managers from some 100 large financial services companies to work together - and, more recently, they have even a view of the course, Users of applications on Linux, in pink, is - Director of the Bank for technical risk management.

Eben Moglen, the Software Freedom Law Center director and co-founder, said that his experience, the growing demand of business applications based on Linux and open source they also acted as a catalyst for the driver and greater cooperation between technology and the business of arms.

Matt Asay, Alfresco VP of Business Development, suggested that all employees of trade and technical training, even behind Corporate Alfresco implementations of the solution for the “open” document management.

Stuart Cohen, formerly under the direction of the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), told the audience that he starts CSI as a means of reducing the cost of software development by promoting the economy of matches high schools, executives with special needs to help The costs of open-source development.

But even if the open source applications are typically developed on Linux, they are used in environments of Windows and Unix and Linux, “said CSI’s CSO.

MISSOULA, Mont - 1999, the legislature at the Montana Indian Law “Education for All", in which it is said, all education personnel must be understanding and awareness of Indian tribes, so they can learn on Indigenous Populations As a culturally react.

That is an ambitious goal, which have not yet been implemented in many schools Montana. Teachers often feel intimidated by the integration of education in their classrooms India - especially if it is only very little.

However, the University of Montana offers a new tool, with teachers and administrators for their Indo-based curriculum. It is a line set up studies referred Indian Education Leadership Training.

The two semesters, six credit course began last autumn. Two participants come from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Indian in Washington, DC The others work 48 to 10 teachers in all schools Montana - Kalispell after Opheim in Billings.

‘’The course is very unique,’’said Sally Thompson, director of the Learning POUR’s regional project, the pinnacle of the new curriculum. ‘’The depth and breadth of content we have, it is teachers this way about all that I have never in my own education.'’

The regional project of learning, part of continuing education, was founded in 2001 and is committed to the production of educational resources for the Indians as movies, DVDs, websites and directs the study . Thompson and his colleagues at regular intervals, India training workshops for teachers or 30.

But'’there will always felt like a drop in the ocean,’’she said. We denken’’startete a better way to do it would be an online course that can influence, because of their greater number of people of our trip a few times a year to a small group.'’

But why is Thompson, an anthropologist specializing in matters of contract, want to oppose a major project like this? She laughed and said:'’A friend of mine Browning claims of their ancestors drag me in the nose.'’

Thompson department, with the entry of the State Office of Public Instruction’s Education Division and Indian tribal leader, with FOR’s School of Education, at the beginning of the design of the year 2005. The project was sponsored by the Montana school districts had money to do so, materials and human resources development.

The course follows Web site has a page of the flag State of Montana’s 12 tribal nations. Click on a flag for tribal sites. The site also contains hours of video, it is possible that students will view mini-video conferences Top-Montana Indian teachers.

‘’With time, of course, what we first started with the planning, I had already completed interviews with more than 100 people for an Indian the project website on the tribes along the Lewis and Clark - Trail [www.trailtribes. Org],’’said Thompson. ‘’So, we have some additional interviews really focus on what we needed for the course. Thus, we can now illuminate the best teachers Indian teachers in the state in this online forum.'’

The course began in June last year with a summer institute in Helena, as well as most of the first students to meet each other and lay the foundation of a site based on the community, they would be the same . The first line in the last fall semester, of course, was an immersion in the educator has studied the seven Essential Understandings Regarding American Indians.

These agreements were signed by the tribes in Montana in 2000, under the leadership of the OPI. Essential Understanding 1, for example, reads:'’There are major differences between the 12 states of the tribe-Montana, in its own language, culture, history and government.'’Understanding 3 explains how Native beliefs traditional culture and languages exist today, as proposed 6 Understanding the history of the prospect of India often conflict with the mainstream.

The students are now in their second Semester”'’Anwendung with what they have learned, content or design of the curriculum they return to their classroom in the real world.

Thompson said all the participants are working in the classroom, when they have time. Some, especially in smaller towns, school, so they can be a computer with a fast Internet connection. Teachers are not tested, but they have noted the extent to which they respond to questions and concepts for an online discussion forum, as well as its final drafts.

Schools are encouraged to have teams of teachers who, of course,'’because it is obviously going further with more people to enter into the circle,’’said Thompson. ‘’We want people relations and cooperation, the most consistent with the American Indian in the world.'’

She said, the Indian Education Leadership Training is responsible for all subjects, not just history or civics education and social status. For example, a math teacher can explain how a hut Indian tepee to build, with all the mathematics and science in the understanding of how we need a lot of skins, the structure of the form and the angle of the poles.

‘’I think people have the idea that if you do not have a complex number, you have just said Thompson'’,'’, but what I think people start learning is perhaps, the opposite. Non-Indians are really caught in our ideologies, without knowing that it is a different vision of things. That is why we are often on the offensive irrelevant, because if we do ethnozentrisch. And it is sad, because Indian children are offended, without knowing it, from teachers all the time.'’

The case was taught per semester and Stolle Darrell Thompson, associate professor of curriculum and teaching at the School of Education. Stolle said he had enough support to the role played by half, to Menschen'’verstehen the psychosocial impact of a multicultural curriculum and social policy to accompany the political forces in this class. It is also, with regard to people who are different from you. Can we recognize that your world is on the invalidity of a different perspective?

Native Kultur'’Jeder has its own way of doing things, the use and the construction of knowledge,'’he said. ‘’When you begin to understand that other people over valid way to discover the world, then restart your image in the world is just one of many, and it is not always wait, students , to see the world from your vision.'’

The second half is taught by Professor Stolle and education Lisa Blank, the structure for a large part of the curriculum online. Students, it is expected that a device for social studies, mathematics or computer science or management of an implementation plan for the Indian Education for All “in their schools. Administrators can also be an option of course, provides an insight into how the implementation of Indian education in their curricula.

Stolle said one of the main targets for the summer semester, it is, teachers and administrators from across the country to set up, as build relationships of cooperation and implement curricula. To facilitate this work, the participation of students for the content of online communities.

‘’For example, math / computer science from the community of learning allows teachers Opheim, Missoula and Cut Bank,'’he said. ‘’The share ideas for curriculum and give an opinion on a work of the other.'’

The wiki uses also, of course, open space, with which the participants an easy way to create and edit their own websites collaborative, and each school showcase of India “Education for All” programme of studies and planning implementation.

‘’This technology is really helping to break down barriers of the bridge in our country,’’said Stolle. ‘’Even teachers are busy, so this format, it is easy for them to access these materials when they are ready to do so.'’

Thompson said, the course offers a wide range of online content. For example, it includes a PowerPoint presentation on the history of the contract developed by students of the Maylinn Smith, the head of the Indian Law’s clinic. Another section of professor of Jura-Ray Cross, Mandan, Hidatsa tribal member, has successfully argued cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, covers tribal sovereignty.

From intend to continue in the classroom and on-line implementation of studies, so that part of the School of Education Curriculum. Thompson said that “education for all” Indian Law and new online courses progressive Montana Native to the pursuit of education for their citizens.

Works in this'’was an incredible privilege,’’she said. ‘’I think that now we have a real opportunity to learn from each other and create a much better world for our children.'’

Ascendantes (News - alarm) Systems, a subsidiary of Research in Motion, and Sprint have announced the use of the Mobile Extension sprint, powered by ascending Systems, Lee County Sheriff’s Office.

The agency full-service law enforcement service Lee County, Fort Myers Beach and Bonita Springs will build on this technology to allow its agents to patrol Lee County to respond more quickly to actual emergencies such as theft, accidents , and other crimes.

For fixed-mobile convergence capabilities and his deputy commander, far from their desktops, Sprint Mobile Extension has been incorporated into the existing telephone infrastructure of the Sheriff’s Office.

The technology is designed for the identity and functionality of the office phone from any mobile device and, therefore, to simplify and communicate and discuss how MPs voice mail while away from their computers office.

This solution enables agents and employees have the telephone number of an order which offers opportunities, and have their desktop phones, while ring with their mobile devices, to ensure they have not miss important calls, and can respond immediately to situations.

Just as we received a call from his mobile phone and expand their office rather than their phone numbers, cell phone number was an important security feature for the department.

“When we started, for the first time on mobile and extending fixed-mobile convergence qualifications, which was the most impressive of seamless integration. We were so accustomed to inconveniences, such as several missed calls and voice messages that we had no idea of the benefits of true voice of mobility, “said Captain Richard Carver Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Tuesday, in a statement.

“We have seen a great improvement in productivity and joint efforts, since the provision of Mobile Extension, and our citizens are better as a result.”

The strategic partnership with Sprint Ascendenten system enables the company to offer sophisticated voice to the mobility of users Corporate Federal.

Mobile Extension works with any phone, including BlackBerry (News - Alarm), smartphones and other mobile phones, desktop phones and laptops at home, and supports TDM and IP telephony systems l ‘business.

“The perception is moving around fixed-mobile convergence, and this is another use for validation, while in a large number of telephony environments,” said Theron Dodson (News - alarm), director of Sales and Marketing at bottom Systems, Tuesday statement.

“The use of Mobile Extension to Lee County Sheriff’s Office is an excellent example of how mobility voice technology can be used by law enforcement organizations to be more emphasis on people.”

Lee County has also worked with patrol cars equipped with high-speed mobile updated maps and offers applications such as IP, video-telephony, Nextel Direct Connect Push-to-talk service and multi-user videoconference directly from the car.

“As law enforcement and information technology are becoming increasingly sophisticated, we need more bandwidth, which we have never possible. Sprint Mobile Broadband allows us to build on the data relating to the cruisers, officers have the same skills as in their car to his office, “Captain Carver.

“Today, the mobile workforce, whether a sale or the team of law enforcement, any more than to be on a desktop. We find many customers are turning towards fixed-mobile convergence as the choice to allow mobility, “says Darlene Brunswick, Vice-President of Converged Network Solutions (News - Alert) at Sprint.

“Lee County Sheriff’s Office is a leader in the use of new technologies to implement more effectively, and we are happy to help, his hand with both mobile and Sprint Sprint extension mobile broadband network. ”

Through this partnership, the solution Ascendenten Sprint and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office is better equipped to respond to emergencies, but also to communicate with the Bureau and with the constituents.

Susan J. Campbell is a contribution to the publisher TMC (News - Alarm), and also for eastbiz.com. To see more of his article, please visit Susan J. Campbell ‘columnist page.

The drafting interviews Mr. Schad, CEO of the company DataCert legal solutions on how globalization and cooperation have an impact on the development of legislative, management solutions. During his time with DataCert, he spoke to more than 100 implementations in software complex and diverse environments society services law.

Editor: Please tell our readers some information about DataCert.

Schad: DataCert was founded in 1998 and is the largest provider of regulatory measures, management solutions. Corporate Counsel DataCert use the goods and services for the management of legal counsel and outside. In all, 71 DataCert a Fortune 500 ®, customers and connections of customers in 116 countries.

Editor: What are the current corporate law departments of research, when it comes to regulatory measures technology management?

Schad: power law department - especially on a global scale - many challenges. Law departments, employees and outside consultants working on a large number of issues to the world, as well as the management of the field of information and the financial value of a difficult task. Company law needed a system to centralize services and other financial information involves both the Legal Division and management of information necessary to make business decisions and demands ever-greater respect of the regulations. This effectively paves the way to greater transparency and collaborative processes.

Another very important factor for a global system is the ability to integrate with other systems and local businesses. For example, why should the right to use the service personnel records management tool, while the entire company uses another? Why maintain and endorse an electronic invoice by a law firm, but must print it and send it to the commitments for goods and services? By integrating with existing solutions, management and legal spend management technology not only streamline the process, but also services of the law in its entirety by companies to their existing solutions.

Editor: What is the current cooperation of the department of law?

Schad: The collaboration of a lot about, if you have the technology law. This means different things to different people. Broadly speaking, cooperation in a department of corporate law say, the reduction of friction in the context of certain transactions between themselves and their external advisers and other service providers. These transactions include rate negotiations, budgets, on the Introduction and the status and terms of payment, among other things, the statute.

Each law has its own service and the expectations of comfort, when it comes to cooperation. Measures management solutions must be flexible enough that the right to work in the service according to their own needs.

On the other side of the transaction, by external consultants, also has a particular interest in cooperation as a means of providing excellent customer service and enhance the efficiency and reduce costs.

Editor: What has been the evolution of technology globalization legal?

Schad: Actually, it’s more a case of how technology and globalization have influenced each other. The technology in general, including the Internet, mobile phones and e-mail, has resulted in improved communication and cooperation on a global scale. These innovations have led to greater emphasis on growth and global expansion. What happens next? The market again turns to technology for solutions, globalization and raising activity is based primarily on the next step of action.

The same procedure was repeated during the past 10 years for the departments of corporate law. For an example, look at the product DataCert. Ten years ago, DataCert are offered (which at the time) a revolutionary concept: e-Invoicing. These consisted of Pipeline Safety to obtain outside legal counsel for the electronic invoices to the company law departments. It was, first, to the United States.

Since technology on the whole improved in the late 1990’s and early 2000, DataCert simple e-Invoicing pipeline designed to automate workflow, validation accounting, reporting, money in several ways, through the value added tax and respect for the complexity of the integration functions. Through the use of technologies such as this, corporate law departments are better able to understand the needs of businesses, their overall growth.

Corporate law departments of technology in order to continue to improve care and to continue to improve processes related to the care of society. The identification of these trends in technology and globalization, DataCert has a unique global platform for the morality of the company - 10 CLD. CLD 10, go to both legal and material, the right service companies control the situation of law and IP switch and provides the tools needed to manage the legal aspects on a global scale.

Publisher: Looking back, what was some of the most interesting changes to the legal structure for companies in the technology sector?

Schad: In the last 10 years, the increase in costs associated with litigation and compliance of the law division, and participation in strategic growth initiatives have forced changes in the management and operation of the Legal Division.

Law departments have to trust the technology to improve processes, policies and finances to manage and cooperation with outside consultants and service providers. Operational efficiency and cost reduction are a priority for the departments of law, as they are called, with fewer more accessible. This implies for the departments of labor law with their service provider in a cooperative manner, the release of data from systems on both sides.

Ten years ago, corporate law departments knew he was increasingly into account the value of information by electronic means his company to share technology, but such data are not available. The problem was solved with e-Invoicing. But the sharing and management of additional data on the invoice of the transaction and to manage the operations, it is always necessary. The problem with current systems is that the data on both sides of the transaction is in fact the same, and in several places, data sharing difficult. Providers of technology, as DataCert are developing solutions to stimulate existing infrastructure and effective systems of data exchange and reduce friction on both sides of the transaction.

For example, CLD 10 of the Act allows the creation of divisions, the forms are not required by internal users CLD and external consultants. The data from these forms can be sent directly to the GC, and then update the information and discussion of the financial data related to the matter. Such cooperation promotes efficiency and accuracy of data.

Publisher: Remind yourself to learn more about our readers CLD 10

Shad: 10 CLD is a comprehensive platform for electronic invoicing, Spend Management legal and management. Technology allows lawyers, the legal control of their actions. With 10 CLD, Corporate Legal Departments right to manage and monitor IP spend, while the quantities of documents and financial information in connection with legal matters.

Editor: How do you see the management of legal measures, to develop solutions in the next three to five years?

Schad: Measures management solutions continue to promote cooperation and operational efficiency through better solutions for buildings, the system of links between services and law firms and outside their service providers . These solutions are systems using lawyers in the normal course of their daily activities. It is also a concern for the continuous improvement of systems integration as the desire of the law, business service an application.

Please e-mail to the interviewee don.schad @ datacert.com questions about this interview.

The university is developing its capacity for programs in Portland from today with the opening of a renovated on the block white deer in the Old City.

The new facility, the consolidation of the University of Portland were previously programs in one place, “said Terri Warpinski, the vice president for Academic Affairs.

Some programs have already been moved to the building, with its first classes begins today. Most university programs are moved Portland, and the fall of 2008.

The property lies in St. 70 NW sofa in Portland in the west end of the Burnside Bridge, consists of three existing buildings on the block have been renovated and merged. These include the historic day of deer White Blanc and the building at the ground floor of Block Building Skidmore, and the other half in the ground floor of Building Block Bickel.

The 103,000-square-foot building has space education, laboratories, studios, exhibitions and meeting rooms, a new library and learning commons, a development environment for collaborative computing and university and a new Duck-bookstore with a coffee shop, according to the University website.

Installation is new house and Portland previously existing programs at the School of Journalism and Communication, the School of Law, the Lundquist College of Business, the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, and other programs.

The University has expanded its programs in Portland since the 1880’s.

With the opening day of the White building, the image name on the famous “Made in Oregon” sign of the university, which allows Portland programs to grow and have a greater impact on the community, Warpinski said.

“With the consolidation of the University of Portland programs in a place, there is the possibility of synergy and cooperation between the faculty’s capacity for flexible deployment,” she said.

The architecture of the school plans to relocate part of their Bachelor of fine arts fifth year program next year White day.

Art Professor Colin Ives, the leadership of professor of digital arts program in Portland, it is advantageous for students to digital art in an urban environment, they can benefit from more chances.

The move to larger, in collaboration established to strengthen other programs such as the School of Law in Portland semester program that combines corporate law courses and externships, said Professor Steven Jura Bender, director of the Law School’s Portland.

During the year 2006, the university has 18, a lease with the venerable White properties of the day with the block of the purchase option for eight years.

Warpinski said, the idea of consolidating the University of Portland first programs in the year 2003 has emerged at the venerable properties of the University, with the possibility of renting space in a Building planning, it was to buy and renovate. At that time, the idea to relocate and expand a number of programs in architecture and Business Schools.

Venerable lost the tender offer, that the title of ownership, but Craig Kelly, Vice President of the venerable, said that under the original plan fell, the venerable continues with the University and expand her Plans for the construction of other facilities. Then, in the year 2006, he started buying and renovating buildings on the deer White bloc.

The new facility is already associated with an impact on the Portland, Warpinski said.

“It’s a way to enrich and support the professional needs of Portland,” she said. In addition, the showroom and conference is open for public use.

Kelly, which, since the monitoring of developments in the region since the start of construction, said: “I can not emphasize enough the positive impact on the community.”

The region, he said, had been neglected for decades. Now, large companies and other organizations are relocated, Mercy Corps, which is moving headquarters in nearby Skidmore Building.

The various programs also have an impact, said Ives.

“One of the things that happens is that the programme is moving to Portland, we see the effects of digital art, the program has on the community,” says Ives. The program offers students more opportunities to forge closer working relationships with alumni in the region. Ives hopes that the development in a “creative community in Portland.”

In his speech on March 26 (website), the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, McCain never mentioned the need to preserve American sovereignty. It would have calmed the Conservatives, stating his open opposition to Senate ratification of the UN Law of the Sea contract for the international control of the billion dollars of oil, gas and minerals, and the United States undermines the calls North Pole wealth. But he is not elected.

Rather, the Washington Post, like him, McCain has promised “a foreign policy cooperation", which, in coordination with other nations. The New York Times said, he has distanced from “unilateralism” in foreign policy.

“The Liberals want the love of the speech,” Talk conservative Rush Limbaugh master McCain said on the address. He said, it seemed that the “global test", the Liberal Democrat presidential candidate and Senator John Kerry had proposed, for American foreign policy, during the year 2004.

But McCain’s new TV spot called “the American president Americans waited for so long.” The public should not be misled. It is, like many globalists such as Hillary and Obama.

Realizing that McCain agrees to the adoption of a new UN convention sponsored global warming agreement, which would be even broader and more difficult as the Kyoto Protocol, Limbaugh said that “The issue is that ya, there’s nothing special to America, and No, we in a position to do something without coming into contact with other nations and how they, and they tell us that we intend to harm them, and we want that good administrators of the land, as they want to be responsible. ”

The latter was a reference to McCain said that “we must become good managers of our planet, and in concert with other nations to help our common homeland. Risks of global warming have no borders.” McCain sounded like another Democrat Al Gore.

But despite his preference for what appears to be a kind of New World Order, McCain prior approval of a new Muslim state in Europe under the name of Kosovo, it could undermine all his best shots. The recognition of Kosovo could lead to what war with Russia and more problems for terrorists from Israel.

Scary rhetoric

Bobby Eberle of GOPUSA commented, “Senator McCain a laundry list of all things, and not conservative.” He said that was not the cause, or even conservative Republicans. (Website)

Amanda Teegarden, an activist of popular sovereignty, has also been alerted. “It is imperative that the conservatives to hear the speech, especially when one considers the sovereignty and economic survival, the United States,” she said.

In addition to a new contract of global warming, it found that the proposals contain McCain opening of borders in the Western Hemisphere, nuclear disarmament and a transatlantic free trade.

That is why I am convinced that the Department of Homeland Security, he says - whether the intent of Real ID - an extension of 18 months of that period, during the period, the States with Congress to modify and improve.

– Eight countries have requested and been granted these extensions, Maine is not among them, but I hope it will be very soon. Otherwise, in about six weeks, many Mainers experience enormous inconvenience.

How did we, we, where are we today?

In 2004, both sides 9 / 11 Commission, chaired by former New Jersey’s Gov. Tom Kean, a Republican, and the United States-Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Indiana, noted that all but one of the 19 terrorists who attacked our country, driver flights, rental cars and other activities to enable them to act .

Therefore, the Commission is in favour of mandatory standards to ensure driver’s license.

As chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, I, the provisions of the author Intelligence Reform Act of 2004, a committee consisting of cooperative federal and Länder, politicians, technology, experts and advocates of privacy to develop these standards.

While negotiations of the conference, I have successfully fought attempts energetic House members on the establishment of the Real ID Act, in lieu of the provisions of I wrote.

Fortunately, the position by the Senate, but our victory was short-lived.

Cooperation began its work on the committee, and includes among its members the Maine’s then Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, who was appointed to my request.

Before their work could be achieved, but the Assembly in the spring of 2005, my skating provisions repealed by the Real ID Act of war in a bill emergency financing supported by the entire delegation of Maine .

The Senate has never voted on Real-ID.

The joint effort to contribute to the development of standards was stopped, replaced by a top-down approach, in the department to write the rules.

Once issued the division and the Ordinance on the implementation of the projects took place Real ID, the cost of privacy and the practical implications are even clearer.

I have worked hard for the department, in the final automatic extension of rules for States, for all of us, more time to more reasonable approaches, even more input by States and more privacy and costs.

Of course, I think many of the problems which are statements from the meeting with the Real ID today could be avoided if the original provisions of the Intelligence Reform Act was drafted, I will not be repealed, Real-ID.

Yet, as Gov. John Baldacci acknowledged in his last letter to the Division, which are not all of the Real ID Act, is not viable. He cites compliance with the requirements, as a large number of documents that Maine, improve the safety of drivers licenses.

We must also acknowledge that the driver may licenses of the “key to the kingdom” for terrorists seeking the death and destruction, and the states have a responsibility to ensure that the certificates are tamper-proof and only to those whose identity and the Legal Status Verifiziert are.

Currently, Maine is one of only a handful of states that are not proof that legal persons residing prior to the issuance of a driving licence, a problem of the legislative authority is now discussing.

But neither the Real ID a huge unfunded mandate cost states billions of dollars and increases privacy, which are not yet fully reflected in the attack. Congress must contribute to the solution of this funding and privacy during the extension.

Together we can to the security of drivers’ licenses, a serious analysis so that lapses, the 9 / 11 Commission, while preserving the privacy rights of our people or large costs not covered in our country.

Mr. Republican Susan Collins, was elected for the first time in Maine to represent the United States Senate in 1996 and was elected in the year 2002. She is a member of classification and the former chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the jurisdiction of the US Department of Homeland Security and the Senate, the Supervisory Committee of the capital.

A first original music at the University of Redlands is a sendup of institutions of higher learning and performance art seasoned with a bit of modern romance. “Love U. The degree School Musical” is a collaboration that spans two schools, not only in higher education, but the two countries.

“We are creating a very funny, a pleasure to the senses and irreverent humor, and a degree of satirization, which allows us to laugh at our own weaknesses,” says director Chris Beach, is a drama teacher at University.

The fairy tale in a college in the city has a purely fictitious pre-conditional tenure man named Karl, who thinks it’s a drop-out waitress and performance artist Nora.

“Sparks fly, because Karl chance a bride, Hildegarde, the daughter of the president of the university,” said Beach.

Along the way, the designers threw in some screwball comedy Hollywood, the old Jewish sage, a Hip-Hop-thesis, speak footnotes and flying pies.

The show began its development with tunes jazz guitarist Peter Curtis, a music teacher at Riverside City College.

He grew up with Curtis’ cousin-in-law of Montreal and author Joel Yanofsky; Beach and the theater from the University; Jo Deardorff, RCC professor of contemporary dance, as well as other teachers and students at the two schools and Riverside School for the Arts contributed to the part of the credits, because the game is fulfilling its mission of promoting collaboration projects.

Curtis Yanofsky and worked over a period of years, on books and music, he read and Beach on board as a director, Deardorff demand as a choreographer. Last summer, the show “workshopped” at the university and other changes at the dress rehearsal depth.

“It’s really cooperation, and changes are in the minds of all of the work, so it is better. It is ideal for students, because that is often what happens in the professional theatre, “said Deardorff.

The students have not only seen, they have contributed to the development of the piece.

“I have a lot of choreography in the musical, probably 30 in my life, but I have never seen an original score,” said Deardorff. “I told Peter I like his music and one of the main reasons, it is quite capable of singing. Let me invite you to a music and get at least one drone tune. He also great ‘fun, beautiful songs. ”

The scent of the air, nervous and full of humor, listen to music on myspace’s page.

Curtis wrote some songs in the workplace on his doctorate at Indiana University.

“The melodies is just beginning,” he said. “I had this idea, these songs, which show how music, and my own music.”

His influences were the canonical Tin Pan Alley composers - Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and Gershwin brothers.

NEW BEDFORD - violence prevention must begin well before the band arrest, Boston Police Deputy Superintendent asked Friday.

“Lessons learned of us who are really, you need to go beyond the arrest. This problem is too big for us alone, Deputy Superintendent Paul Joyce said, participation in a seminar of technical assistance for the museum whaling De healthy opportunities for a peaceful engagement, or HOPE, 23 in the city of the agency anti-gang violence collaborative.

New Bedford was seen as a model for its approach of the Commonwealth in managing the problem.

“Most municipalities mostly use the police reaction (on the problem),” said Sean P. Varano, a professor of criminal law from Northeastern University. “New Bedford. New Bedford What is really developing a community-based approach for groups (with).”

Dr. Varano provide technical assistance for HOPE.

Sponsored by a national $ 11 million grant Shannon, the New Bedford program addresses links to the prevention of violence and oppression.

The novelty of the New Bedford, Mr. Varano, and others said they would step beyond the traditional boundaries of the police.

The HOPE scholarships a variety of programs in the city, including a programme of advice for band members at the end of their sentences Bristol County House of Correction aid their integration into existing practices, such as transport, housing and employment, the mentoring program SMILES in schools and roads, prevention programs in the neighborhoods near issues, among others.

But with the municipality is not as easy as it sounds. Boston, for example, has spent six years sorting of the community for their participation Anti-Gang Initiative.

Dr. Varano said the police departments are traditionally conservative and closed joint agencies are reluctant to work with groups from the outside or know what they are doing. Sharing and commitment “is not what the police which they are responsible,” said Dr Varano.

New Bedford Police Chief Ronald Teachman police acknowledged having a problem with new ideas.

“It is rare that in our profession, we innovation,” he said.

But in New Bedford, it took law enforcement authorities and political leaders that both model commitment, “said Dr. Varano.

“You are on a large and robust,” he said.

As in Boston, New Bedford novel approach of the Band of violence is seen as a product of tangible results, lower crime rates.

A said Dr Varano, while violence spikes, the general trend is that the serious, violent crime is in the right direction, in the city of New Bedford, “which he regards as a” complex “.

In the meantime, the Legislature has tried to develop the Shannon grant program in a $ 15 million initiative in the coming year. The program, in its second year, was originally only for one year.

“It is our hope that we can continue to Shannon, the financing of the grant,” said Rep. Stephen Canessa, D-New Bedford.

Two bills, the legislative authority this month to offer all or a portion of Interstate 70 through the mountains in order to facilitate traffic congestion in the Continental Divide.

Senate Bill 209, in national legislation, if Signatories, vehicles of less than three people and more than 26 metres lead you on the road between Floyd Hill and the Eisenhower tunnel, traffic on the runway is more serious. This money would go to pay for the automatic identification of vehicles, parking spaces for tractor-trailers and other vehicles wait too long, “Peak-time,” when the streets are proposed, and for skiers busing ski areas.

According to the bill summary, we can say, Senate Bill 213 proposes a toll no more than $ 5 on new railways or I-70, “to strengthen the capacity of all or a portion of Interstate 70 “on the same range of intergovernmental SB 209.

It is obvious that the idea behind these two proposals is to improve the flow of traffic on the highway traveled very, whether drivers, especially during winter weekends, face, odbijača bumper traffic. Tolls can do, and we welcome the legislature for their creative spirit, but the legislature must be carefully reflect on some questions before you act, or on the invoice. Either a toll would waive the federal level existing pavement, which can complicate the implementation.

And we must not forget that a team of players called Collaborative Effort working to solve the problem of I-70 is that for everyone. By the end of May, Collaborative Effort is scheduled for a preferred alternative for the corridor. Its basic options, it is the widening of the road to six lanes, the construction of a rail line or a combination of both. In 2006, the estimated costs of enlargement were $ 4.1 billion for rail transport $ 8 billion.

We hope that when the Governor for one or the other of tolling systems, the bills would also adjust the toll system with another care of this group.

Toll lanes perhaps pay for some of these costs, but it is highly unlikely that the toll, the only strong on the price of the necessary work on I-70.

Hello everyone. They are concerned about the threat of the exam? Do you feel empty now that view and slander spring break comings and goings? Freight him. From the famous organization, dandelions and Feb very special club, a weekend, you do not want to miss the 25th annual meeting of the Law on UVA Invitational Softball. Your tournament directors, in collaboration with its many faithful servants, around the time to organize a UVA Law’s most unique and highly anticipated traditions. For those of you less familiar with the event, here’s an overview of what is feared in the tournament, and how you can help, you can participate:

The format

112 teams from 50 schools of the law descent into Charlottesville 4-6 April. The teams are divided into a co-Rec division of 64 teams and a division of 48 teams regularly. Students from as far away as Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Iowa, the trip this year. As usual, a six UVA talented teams competitive and ready to do battle boasts. After the first round-robin game, on Friday and Saturday, Sunday teams are at the disposal of one trombone, development, the rights arising especially on Sundays. The McGuire Woods Championship games will be on Sunday at 3:00 pm Darden Towe Park

Last year, Regular or UVA, Division won with a student first victory over Regent University, endurance and candidates, on the coast of Florida defeated Maryland, the Division Co-Rec. It was the first time since 1998, a UV-A-Team is not to win, the Co-Rec Division, and needless to say, all six of UV-A in the team this year, are starving. The UV-A teams this year on their lists of your new SBA President, the new editor of the Virginia Law Review, two members of the restatements, and nine members of the 1L class talent. Lists in the list of Hunton Williams Hall team lists. To commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the tournament, all players have UVA money “25″ on the front of their jersey. We invite you, you and your friends celebrate victory.

The Fun

The tournament is not only the ultra-competitive Softball type A future lawyers. On Saturday afternoon, the barbecue will be held Bradley Arent intramuralen The Park. At 5:30, we have to consider a long presentation of our charity, Charlottesville Youth & Family Services. It was immediately followed by Kilpatrick Stockton Homerun Derby, one of the most popular events of the weekend. The legendary DJ Wahap we be treated to his talents, as we shall see, each school of men and women representatives of turmhohen house is underway, and the man and his Cav cheerleader is also a particular form of exit from the event. Later in the evening, Kramer Levin Saturday Night Party will be held Corner. Biltmore, Coupe Deville, Zyde Co, and Baja Bean Co., all free refreshments for those who buy a ticket.

Tickets are $ 8 and $ 10 for the barbecue Saturday Night Party. Hunton Williams NGSL sell tickets in the coming weeks in the park and on weekends. 25th Anniversary Commemorative T-shirts are also on sale next week and during the tournament. Short-shirts are $ 10 and long-sleeved shirts are $ 15. If you are wondering why we ask for money, we ask you to read.

The cause

During the weekend is considered by all parties concerned, the tournament is certainly to the left of those who have never. For the past nine years, Children, Youth and Family Services was the largest recipient of the annual North pleased reasons Softball League tournament. CYFS everything revolves around children. For 86 years these private non-profit organization that has worked for children in Charlottesville a chance for a successful future by a menu with targeted programs. Last year alone, CYFS reached nearly 3000 children in low-income or at-risk families, in order to cover the most pressing needs and help around them, creating healthy environment in the home, the child care and school, and in the community.

Over the years, CYFS has a strong partnership with the students of law, science UVA, including a number of other voluntary activities of landscapes and washing windows, Christmas, many children and families by the Agency. The benefits of this partnership Ripple Charlottesville throughout the Commonwealth, which allows a lasting impact on the thousands of children and their families. Last year, organizers of this tournament gave $ 17500 to CYFS. These funds have gone directly to the financing of programmes to enable CYFS orientation of the victims of child abuse, at-Risk Mothers-to learn, supervision for their children, for a 24-hour assistance for young people in crisis, and improving the quality of childcare in the town. For more information on CYFS, visit the website of the www. Cyfs.org. With your participation, we hope to meet or exceed the donation last year.

What can I do to help?

We are pleased that you have requested. First, you can see the famous series Champ de Mars neck. Marshall Field neck are needed for each game to monitor, coordinate with the referee, to address situations of violations, the report final scores and other administrative tasks. This is a joint effort, which is not absolutely necessary, to ensure that the tournament to operate effectively, safely and fairly. If you have not yet sold, each field is a free t-shirt, and free tickets for the barbecue and the Saturday Night Party. If you are interested and would like to help, please contact Kathleen Tarbox kkt7k@virginia.edu. Secondly, ie back and enjoy a funny weekend repairer. Cheer your friends, and on this occasion worthy. We ask you, however, not to bring or consume alcohol in the area at any time that you and others to encourage them to renounce too. Finally, a tack special powers, you can provide sunny, warm weather for the whole weekend. We all hope to see from the outside next weekend.

Welcome to the home of the Division III National Champions in Men’s and Women’s Basketball Volleyball!

It is an honour to recognize that the St. Louis 2007 Citizen of the Year-an honor that my work in partnership with several at Washington University, and many in our great community. I have been supported, encouraged and facilitated by friends and colleagues superb, but nobody is more important than my wife, Risa Zwerling. We were within two weeks after I arrived here almost 13 years. It is a constant and wise adviser and powerful spokesman for the mission of the university.

Back Citizens of the Year have certainly done an enormous amount of this community, and that is something very special for inclusion on the list of major burghers of St. Louis. Of course, it should be clear that the University of Washington, he was honoured today. An enormous investment has been devoted to the University by individuals, corporations and foundations from St. Louis. I am delighted to be at a time, this remarkable progress, and I am grateful for the support. There is a lot of return on investment that has already been made. How do I get over the Chancellor is really appropriate credit for the remarkable contributions of the University of this community. But those in the academic community also understand that I am probably more than I deserve, debt problems, too! My predecessor and 1977 1995 2007 on behalf of St. Louis Citizen of the Year is a culmination of my tenure as chancellor, and this is a day I guess. By the way, I am not party, it remains a date that you love me even more.

In this first address, I am going to some of the main achievements of the University, which focus on areas of importance for St. Louis. Hoping attractions high in my first year in St. Louis in June 1996, I gave a speech to our Board of Trustees “The realization of the promise of the 21st century.” Now we have some time before the end of the first decade of the new century, and many new challenges and opportunities. In 1996 foresaw the consequences of the destruction and 9 / 11, the rise and fall dramatically in technology, industry, the collapse of large companies such as Enron and WorldCom, and now Bear Stearns, growth or understanding tomorrow’s world depends Prevents to face the challenges related to energy and the environment? Before you answer some of these questions, let’s first focus on the university and its impact on the region of Saint-Louis.

While Washington University is a national treasure, with the growing international stature, it is true that we have the most impact. With nearly 12000 full-time employees, we are one of the largest employers in the region. Our payroll is around $ 1 billion. Total revenues for the last fiscal year was almost 1.9 billion dollars, and we spend a large part of those revenues here in St. Louis as a client, many local businesses. It is also important that a large proportion of revenue from sources outside of St. Louis, contributes significantly to the regional economy. Much of the revenue is the teaching of families who live outside of our country. More than $ 500 million in research is funded annually at the Faculty of the University of Washington and scientific personnel of the federal government. Philanthropische support of the university in the region of Saint-Louis is very important, but it is notable that the support from outside of St. Louis of our graduates is important as well. An investment from outside the area confirms the value of our universities and in the region of Saint-Louis, in our country and throughout the world. In sum, the University of Washington, has a profound positive influence on the economy of our region.

Chief Tandy Carter, chief of police in Shelby, North Carolina, was elected to the policy of the Columbia Police Department.

City officials, including Mayor Bob Coble, the announcement of a press conference Wednesday morning.

Carter was one of three finalists for the job. They also contain rich County Sheriff’s Department lawyer Daniel Johnson and E. Veteran Columbia Police Captain Estelle T. Young.

Carter was Shelby, the capital, during the year 2004. He has 33 years of military repression and the municipal authorities of experience. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice by Stephen F. Austin State University and a Master of Forensic Sciences of the National University. Chief Carter is retired from the United States Marine Corps, where he was Lieutenant Colonel of the Provost Marshal’s Office. He recently held the Shelby Police Department re-accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA).

“I always know exactly what they want is that I am and that I want to do,” says Carter.

It has a track record of violence crimes cutting working conditions and to avoid ties, two of Colombia on urgent issues. He is confident in his approach works here. “I have a very refined skill of conduct. I spent a quarter century in the army. I know who I am when I wake up in the morning. I do not have to prove myself. I am good about myself. I have a sinister ability to see the future and it works. ”

Carter wasted no time getting to know the men and women of its new police department. Carter said, is part of his management style - open, democratic Europe, and a possible collaboration. “I am over the transmission of repression, the criminal prosecution authorities transparency. I do not have an ego. I have no boys at the head of the hill. I would prefer by far to enjoy the sun and the success of my people. ”

Divorce is now a fact of life. More than 12,000 divorces are granted in Connecticut each year. No longer do we whisper about some relative who was divorced.

Many in our society feel this reflects a breakdown in our moral fiber. Many states are considering making it more difficult to get divorced with the hopes that this will improve the quality of our families.

This is a short-sighted approach to the problem. Rather, it should be harder to get married and easier to get divorced.

Skilled divorce professionals always advise clients to seek marital counseling before considering a divorce. This is done to make sure the couple has explored all alternatives to saving the marriage and to make sure the parties have left no stone unturned and do not feel guilty, if they start a divorce.

In fact many marriages have been saved this way. If the marriage cannot be saved what is next? Divorcing couples lack information about the divorce process and are unnecessarily fearful of what may…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

The publications listed below are for information purposes only. To obtain copies contact the publisher. The entries in this section are listed free of charge and are limited to material published in Canada and by Canadian authors. Publishers and organizations wishing to enter their publications are advised to provide a telephone number. (AIF=available in French: E/F=English and French)

Surviving on hope is not enough, women ’s health, poverty, justice and income support in Manitoba. Rhonda Wiebe and Paula Keirstead, Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence Winnipeg, www.pwhce.ca ISBN 0-9735048-2-X

Follow Quebec’s lead: removing disincentives to work after 60 by reforming the CPP/QPP. Yvan Guillemette. CD Howe Institute. Toronto; cdhowe@cdhowe.org

Not just another call … police response to people with mental illnesses in Ontario: practical guide for the frontline officer. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto; Ontario Police College and Regional Health Care; London; www.oacp.on.ca

Strategies for hospitals to improve patient safety: a review of the research. Change Foundation, Toronto; 416-205-1442

Time for action: An economic and social analysis of child care in Winnipeg. Molly Prentice and Susan McCracken, Child Care Coalition of Manitoba; www.childcaremanitoba.ca

Delayed life transitions: trends and implications. Roderic Beaujot. Vanier Institute for the Family; Ottawa. www.vifamily.ca

A strategic approach and policy document: to address the needs of families of offenders: safety, respect…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

After months of antagonism New Jersey and Indiana agreed yesterday to crack down on the illegal dumping of New Jersey’s garbage in Indiana’s landfills.

Under the agreement, announced by Gov. Jim Florio and Gov. Evan Bayh at a conference of the nation’s governors in Seattle, the two states will share information and coordinate investigations into the dumping, which has been a contentious political issue in Indiana.

“This agreement will provide us with the opportunity to have a combined collaborative law-enforcement effort between both states for the mutually desirable goal of eliminating illegal dumping,” Governor Florio said in a telephone interview from the conference. Demands From Lawmakers

New Jersey is the nation’s largest exporter of garbage, shipping 55 percent of its trash to landfills in other states, primarily Pennsylvania and Ohio – a practice that irks residents in those states. It also appears, in spite of the fact that New Jersey does not have permission to dump in Indiana, that thousands of tons of New Jersey’s garbage have ended up there.

More : query.nytimes.com

Before sinking to name-calling and squaring off over who gets the dog, the wide-screen TV, or - worse yet - the children, consider a possible alternative to a protracted divorce: collaborative law practice.

“It is not for everybody, and it’s not for every case,” said Superior Court Judge Sheryl Jolly, who presides over domestic court cases in the Augusta Judicial Circuit. “(But) it is a mature way of handling a divorce.”

Several attorneys, at least two child psychologists and an accountant have committed themselves to trying the new approach, attorney Andrew Tisdale said.

He said it’s very disheartening to get to know intelligent, caring people who can turn into snarling, bitter malcontents because of a process that often brings out the worst in people.

The adversary system, especially under old rules, such as the presumption that there must be one primary custodian for a child, creates a battlefield sometimes, Mr. Tisdale said.

Collaborative law is a holistic approach to divorce. It begins with a promise from both sides that their goal is an uncontested divorce. Everyone - attorneys, clients and, if needed, child psychologists, accountant and coaches - works toward a civil compromise forged without rancor or force, Mr. Tisdale said.

Collaborative law practice in other areas, including Atlanta and cities across the country, shows a 90-plus percent success rate. When it’s not successful, professionals have to end their relationship with both parties, Mr. Tisdale said.

“It’s not cheap, but it is cheaper,” he said.

It’s estimated to be 30 percent cheaper, said certified public accountant Todd Matthews, who is taking part in the new approach. There are more people involved, but it’s cheaper because instead of paying expensive attorney bills for those last-minute visitation change arguments and disagreement over finances, other, less costly professionals are there to referee and help.

More : chronicle.augusta.com

Collaborative law is giving IFAs a chance to prove their worth to solicitors

Perhaps it’s unfortunate timing, given that Valentine’s Day has just passed, but I thought I would offer an update on divorce and collaborative law. Collaborative law (or alternative dispute resolution) is still a new way of getting divorced amicably. It is a concept that originated in the US and under this method, separating couples, together with their respective solicitors, meet to discuss the issues surrounding children, as well as the financial settlement. Other parties such as mediators and counsellors may become involved as well and so it is not necessarily cheaper but

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Two Canberra law firms have launched a pilot scheme in which separating couples and their lawyers agree not to take disputes to court.

Under the scheme, the couple and their lawyers seek to resolve concerns construc- tively through a series of meetings. If the process breaks…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Earlier this year, an ethics opinion by the Colorado Bar Association sent shock waves through the collaborative divorce movement. Now, a formal opinion by the American Bar Association Standing Committee of Ethics and Professional Responsibility sets the collaborative world at ease. Collaborative divorce is a settlement-based methodology that has exploded in popularity over the last several years. In a collaborative divorce, the parties and attorneys agree to avoid court hearings and formal discovery. Mental health…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Most divorce lawyers are familiar with the role of mental health professionals in providing therapy to their clients. Less known, and less prevalent, is a new intervention by those practitioners, divorce coaching. Nested primarily in the collaborative law model and encouraged by organizations such as the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, this practice is more directly supportive of the efforts of the lawyer who wants to keep clients focused, calm, and goal-directed. Such support is reflected in the over-arching goals of the coach to help guide the client through the divorce in ways that reduce conflict, and to promote a post-divorce environment that will enhance the well-being of the children as well as the couple, all while reducing one of the primary sources of stress for lawyers, emotionally charged, misguided behavior by clients.

There are no formal training programs for divorce coaching, nor any licensing or certification for conducting this activity. Collaborative law or IACP conferences do offer trainings for the role, but the methodologies and techniques of the coach are mostly defined by individual practitioners. It can be anticipated that as the number of coaches increases more formal definitions and oversight will be developed. The model presented in this article is informed by collegial discussions and formal presentations, but in large part it reflects a single model that this author developed some years ago and has used to help individuals who are divorcing with more animosity than normal, through collaborative law, and during mediation. In most cases divorce is a very trying psychological experience no matter how the individuals pursue the marital dissolution. Coaching can be a valuable asset no matter what legal avenue is chosen.

FUNCTIONS OF THE DIVORCE COACH

Generally, the coach attempts to reach the goals mentioned previously by assuming several broad objectives.

Reduce Emotions

The processes of divorce, including the legal process, provide ample triggers for hurt, sadness, anger, and the myriad of other feelings that rise and fall with varying intensity, at times forming roadblocks to progress. As every matrimonial attorney knows, divorce is filled with psychological meanings that are set off by four-way meetings, court orders, and any number of supposedly routine events. While the divorce coach does not attempt to dissuade clients from experiencing

expected reactions and feelings, he or she does very directly address the role of those feelings in defeating the client’s goals or in otherwise creating conflict or chaos. The divorce coach then uses concrete tools such as scripting, role-plays, and guided imagery to help the client manage the intensity of the feelings and gain control over their expression. For many mental health professionals, this may be the one occasion in their work when they instruct a client not to feel!

Teach Communication Skills

The companion to emotional intensity is reduced ability to communicate effectively. With affect at a heightened state, thoughts are more apt to become less organized, to wander, and to show a more scattered pattern. The coach guides…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

One of the most unique aspects of humanity is the individuality of mankind. Of course, it could be said that this is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the diversity of our individuality, aspirations, interests, and perspectives lead to dynamic and interesting conversations. Yet on the other hand, these same differences may also lead to conflict. The old adage continues to ring true that no matter how thin you slice it, there are at least two sides to a dispute. Indeed, it is common to hear the modification that there are at least three sides: my side, your side, and the truth.

Laws have been created to govern people’s conduct in society, and the legal system has generally been developed as a forum for dispute resolution. In Canada, our law is based on the adversary system where, in appropriate circumstances, individuals can commence lawsuits against one another and essentially request that the legal process resolve the dispute between them. This court process is generally referred to as the litigation process.

Unfortunately, in recent years, the litigation process has become more and more lengthy and more and more costly. At the same time, alternative forms of dispute resolution have become more and more popular.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) basically refers to procedures outside of the traditional litigation process. The two basic forms of ADR are mediation and arbitration. Indeed, there are many other different forms of ADR such as judicial dispute resolution, executive mini-trials, judicial mini-trials, and early neutral evaluation to name but a few, which are outside the scope of this article.

Arbitration and Mediation

Arbitration and…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

In a collaborative divorce process, practitioners include the attorneys who are their clients’ legal advocates and the allied professionals who work with them.

Among the most valuable allied professionals are the financial professionals who help attorneys and their clients navigate the confusing financial waters surrounding the divorce.

In many households, one partner is often responsible for handling the finances, which could include paying bills, monitoring expenditures and monitoring and making decisions about investments. With a divorce, the partner who did not handle the finances is often unable to make financial decisions because he or she does not understand them.

This is where the financial professional comes in. There are two types of financial professionals who may be involved in a collaborative divorce: a divorce financial analyst and a financial adviser.

The divorce financial analyst works with the parties and the attorneys to help make projections, based on available assets and liabilities, which will help the couple maximize their understanding and control of their individual financial futures.

The financial adviser works with a client after the divorce in carrying out the terms of the settlement, such as transferring IRAs or pensions, as well as advising on and managing investment accounts.

A financial adviser can teach finance basics, such as how to balance a checkbook, how to pay the bills, how to monitor incoming bills for appropriate services (Are they paying for services they do not use and could eliminate?) as well as helping to set up a systematic method of completing these tasks on an ongoing basis. Just explaining to the client the financial impact of keeping a home rather than selling it is often not enough. Clients need to arrive at a conclusion on their own by understanding and examining their cash flow.

More : masslive.com

A TRIO of local law firms have united to set up Peterborough Collaborative Family Law Group (PCFLG) in a bid to ease the battles which so often results from divorce.

Lawyers from the family departments of Buckles Solicitors LLP, Hegarty LLP Solicitors, and hc Solicitors LLP have have launched a dedicated website www.pcflg.co.uk to explain how the united collaborative law team can help ease the pain of relationship breakdown.

Although is unlikely that either the McCartneys or the Tarrants will be adopting the new collaborative approach to reaching divorce settlements, an increasing number of couples…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

At some point during a divorce process, there is a four-way meeting of the divorcing parties and their attorneys.

In a litigated case, the first in-person four-way meeting might be at a court hearing on a motion or at the pre-trial conference with the judge. This meeting might occur after many negative experiences with the opposing side, including depositions, discovery and correspondence on very painful points.

There may be no history of collaborative work between the attorneys on behalf of their parties, and there is no guarantee that this first meeting at the courthouse will be anything but unpleasant.

Key to collaborative process

In a collaborative law case, the four-way meeting takes place right away. This can change the emotional pitch (and results) of the entire process, which enfolds by a series of four-way meetings between the two divorcing spouses and their collaborative attorneys.

The crucial feature of collaborative law is conventionally thought to be the commitment not to litigate the case if the collaborative law process fails. At the inception of a collaborative law case, the parties agree that if the case goes into litigation, they must engage new attorneys and start all over. This is thought to “put the parties’ feet to the fire” in terms of…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

A new non-adversarial method of resolving divorce cases offers a more active role for financial advisers, says Will Henley

Divorce is a lucrative earner for some, not least lawyers, but for families it is usually a protracted and bitter procedure.

More than 150,000 divorces are granted in the UK each year, according to the National Audit Office. As marital assets are divided between couples, the expert advice of an IFA can be of huge comfort to either party.

A new model of settlement gaining popularity in the UK could shake up the role of IFAs in divorce cases. Known as collaborative law, it involves both parties disclosing their finances and actively pursuing a mutually amicable settlement. Unlike other forms of arbitration, it locks the parties into a contract, or partnership agreement, whereby they…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Sustaining Growth and Protecting Firm’s ‘Soul’ Are Priorities

BOSTON, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ – Dwyer & Collora, LLP has named Jody Newman Managing Partner. Ms. Newman succeeds Bill Kettlewell who served as the firm’s Managing Partner for the past eleven years.

Ms. Newman leads the firm’s employment law practice in addition to maintaining a multifaceted civil litigation practice. She is…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

MICHELLE GESKY’S first divorce took three years, tens of thousands of dollars and incalculable heartache. A settlement was reached before trial, but not without appearances before the judge and the assignment of a social worker to defuse a thorny custody issue.

Now Ms. Gesky, 41, is divorcing again, determined “to get past the emotion and not make what is already terrible worse.” She also wants all three of her children, two from her first marriage and one from her second, to be spared the acrimony.

Her husband, Tom, 36, does not bear the same scars. But he, too, hopes for a divorce where the couple “can care for each other afterward, like the friends we once were” and congenially raise their infant daughter.

With those goals in mind, the Geskys decided to try a process called collaborative divorce. Invented more than a decade ago by Stuart G. Webb, a burned-out Minneapolis matrimonial lawyer, it is gaining in popularity around the nation and has recently made its way to New York State.

On a recent evening, at a four-way negotiating session in White Plains with their lawyers, the couple sat shoulder to shoulder on adjoining chairs. It was a peaceful tableau. They didn’t recoil from each other’s touch. Nor did they bicker or fall silent at moments of disagreement.

Already they had made progress toward decisions about selling their house, dividing their pensions and designing a joint child custody arrangement.

More : nytimes.com

Civil partnerships were introduced in a wave of publicity, but 12 months on, some are wishing they could turn back the clock. Sarah Freeman reports.

Everyone loves a good wedding.

Aside from watching a couple pledge their commitment in front of loved ones, there’s also the hope of at least a couple of glasses of free Champagne, the chance to buy a new outfit and the opportunity for a reunion with long-lost friends and family.

Until a little over a year ago, same-sex couples had been denied the right to exchange vows and so it came as little surprise that when civil partnerships – gay weddings in all but name – became legal on December 21, 2005, it sparked something of a mad rush from those keen to have their own big day.

Despite the controversy which emanated from some quarters, the introduction of civil partnerships has widely been deemed a success, with 15,500 couples tying the knot in the first 12 months, but there are those who having rushed to jump on the marriage bandwagon are now repenting at leisure.

Having been together for three years, Darryl Bullock and Mark Godfrey were one of the first couples to wed, beating Elton John and David Furnish’s nuptials by three hours, but, unfortunately, it looked like they were about to make history for altogether less romantic reasons when they announced they were going their separate ways.

“We were really proud to be one of the first couples to have the service and we had a great six months, but things went wrong.

“We were completely committed, but things change in a relationship. We are lucky that there is no property or kids involved, but we have both moved on in our own way,” they say

More : yorkshirepost.co.uk

Divorce Educators, a Palo Alto organization, is hosting family law specialists, financial planners and other experts at Divorce Survival Workshop on April 17, 2004 in Atherton, CA to assist divorcing people in the legal, financial, and emotional aspects of divorce.

Ann Bradley, of Divorce Educators, says, “Divorce is an overwhelming experience. People…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

In 15 years of family practice, Tampa lawyer Nancy Harris has seen it all. And frankly, she’s seen enough - enough of the scorched-earth, fight-to-the-death divorces that make lawyers rich and families bitter. So when she first heard about an alternative to courtroom divorces a year and a half ago, Harris was intrigued. She and a group of colleagues were…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

As Rick Aizpuru headed down that rocky road, he and a friend talked about how awful divorce can be. The recently divorced friend suggested an alternative he found less painful than some stories he had heard about traditional divorce. Imagine a divorcing couple promising to keep their cool. Try to envision divorce lawyers who don’t argue with each other. And think about control of the divorce settlement in the hands of its key players – the divorcing partners – rather than a judge. This isn’t fiction. It’s called collaborative divorce. The perks include less stress, less expense and less strain on the kids, proponents say. “It was just so nonconfrontational,” says Aizpuru, of Edina, who followed his friend’s recommendation. “It allowed us to talk with one another and figure out how to get our divorce worked out."…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Imagine this: One spring morning, Lawyer A receives a call from a client who has been served with a complaint for divorce on the grounds of adultery.

Does she crank up the litigation machine? Suggest mediation, as an alternative to the year or more in court and the tens of thousands of dollars in litigation fees a contested case can consume?

None of the above.

Instead, Lawyer A, her counterpart Lawyer B, and the clients make a four-way pact: They will resolve this themselves, out of court or the clients will have to get new lawyers.

Lawyer B even agrees to a joint motion to stay the litigation, to allow time for the collaborative process to work.

When the circuit court denies the motion, Lawyer B saves the day by dismissing the court case not an insignificant gesture for a divorce lawyer holding the adultery card. The parties and lawyers meet periodically, as agreed, and over the next several months, a comprehensive settlement agreement is born.

“To tell you that it was smooth and simple and easy: it wasn’t,” said Carren S. Oler of Rockville, who was Lawyer A back in 2003. “There were moments of terrific discomfort.”

Still, there was something very satisfying about the process, she said. “It persuaded me that this model was not only workable but effective and not just some kind of wishful theory.”

Revolution

Welcome to collaborative family lawyering, a process in which clients hire their lawyers to negotiate, not litigate, their way to a constructive solution. The concept is still in its infancy in Maryland, although it has progressed further in other parts of the country, notably Minnesota, California and Texas.

The movement began in 1990 with Stuart G. Webb, a sole practitioner in Minneapolis who had taken mediation training. According to Chip Rose of the Mediation Center of Santa Cruz, Calif….

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The issues clients bring to us essentially boil down to how we should behave toward one another in complex human communities. The tradition of our profession set forth in the Preamble to the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct is that lawyers are advisers, helping clients to understand their best interests holistically, with a particular emphasis on providing an informed understanding of the client’s rights and obligations and explaining their practical implications.

Rule 2.1 captures the complexity of this role. “In representing a client, a lawyer shall exercise independent professional judgment and render candid advice. In rendering advice, a lawyer may refer not only to law but to other considerations such as moral, economic, social and political factors, that may be relevant to the client’s situation.”

The first comment to the rule reminds us that a client is entitled…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

(This article originally appeared in Lawyers USA, another Dolan Media publication).

When a suicidal doctor blew up a Manhattan townhouse in July, it was an extreme example of how tensions in a messy divorce can spiral out of control.

But even in a typical divorce, the stress can be intense for clients and lawyers alike.

Enter the divorce coach.

Largely a product of the collaborative-law movement, divorce coaches work with clients to keep them focused on achieving positive results, instead of getting mired in vindictiveness. Their role in the legal team is to help clients navigate the intense emotions and legal frustrations inherent in divorce.

“I’ll often ask a lawyer if there’s something coming up in the legal process that could be upsetting to the client, and if so I’ll plan for it,” said Sanford M. Portnoy, a psychotherapist and divorce coach in Needham, Mass.

Divorce coaches help clients corral their emotions so that they can focus on bargaining effectively, according to Kirsten Lysne, a Minneapolis clinical psychologist who devotes most of her practice to divorce….

Source : accessmylibrary.com

College of Charleston’s procurement director, Wendy E. Williams, has earned the designations of certified public purchasing officer through the Universal Public Purchasing Certification Council and certified purchasing manager through the Institute for Supply Management.

Gulf Stream Construction Co. Inc. recently completed its Hungry Neck Boulevard project. The $4.9 million, 1.75-mile road begins at the corner of U.S. 17…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Collaborative law is a new type of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) used in divorce cases in place of the traditional court-based route. It was introduced to the country following discussions between Cambridge solicitor Rosemary Sands, a consultant at Marchant-Daisley, and collaborative lawyers in Canada three years ago. The approach has been particularly fast to take off in East Anglia, especially in Cambridge, where almost all family lawyers are trained in this method.

The backbone of the collaborative law process is a series of four-way meetings, involving both parties and their legal representatives. There is a minimum of correspondence and no preparation for court. An integral part of the process is that the clients sign a participation agreement at the outset, confirming that they will not go to court to litigate either the divorce or the finances. If either party uses the courts, apart from dealing with matters on an agreed basis, then both solicitors are sacked. There is, therefore, a transparency of mutual interests that keeps the parties and their advisers at the negotiating table. In Cambridge only 3 per cent of collaborative cases have broken down, the rest being resolved successfully through negotiation.

This method is not suitable for all divorcing couples and it is certainly not an easy option. However, it enables the couple to focus on the issues they find important, rather than what a judge is going to require by way of evidence. Much of the wastage of preparing for court can be avoided. The legal spend may therefore be lower, although this will not always be the case as the ambit of discussion can be broader than normal legal remit.

It is particularly helpful in complex cases involving family business, trusts or substantial estates. Difficult areas of valuation can be discussed face-to-face, with the forensic accountant or property valuer coming into the four-way meeting to discuss their findings, rather than giving a ’snapshot figure’, which so often becomes the focus of much sterile (and expensive) debate in court.

More : thelawyer.com/

East Anglian law firms do not always get same profile as the rest of the South East, but with such a close proximity to London and a strong local industry, the legal market is in a good position to compete with its geographical neighbour.

Regeneration is playing its part in providing plenty of work for firms within the East Anglian region, thanks in part to the East of England Development Agency and Olympics-related work.

As firms in the region have developed, local business has realised the benefits of using local firms as opposed to City outfits. Technology and financial services are particularly strong in the region and law firms are winning more work away from London.

As this Special Report highlights, East Anglia is also the UK’s leader for collaborative law. This new type of alternative dispute resolution seeks an out-of-court solution to the divorce process, which is winning fans.

East Anglia has become the first place in the UK to embrace collaborative law - a new way to keep divorce settlements out of the courts. By Roger Bamber

Collaborative law is a new type of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) used in divorce cases in place of the traditional court-based route. It was introduced to the country following discussions between Cambridge solicitor Rosemary Sands, a…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

The very mention of the word “divorce” fills many with sensations varying from dread to shame. Scenes from movies such as “Kramer vs. Kramer” have reinforced the angst many feel when faced with the option of staying in a bad marriage or getting a divorce. However, much of what people believe to be true regarding divorce has changed since the 1970s, when one person had to be “at fault” in order to file for divorce. Now, “no-fault” divorces allow couples to get a divorce when the marriage has suffered an “irretrievable breakdown.”

Here are some of the most prevalent “myths” I’ve encountered over the years as a family law attorney. Every divorce, like every family, is different; however, many of these questions and issues are common.

Myth: If I leave the marital home, I lose all rights to it.

Fact: There are 18 factors that are considered when dividing property between spouses. Nowhere does it state that a person who leaves the marital home loses any rights to it. In fact, there is a trend to consider the fact that a spouse who leaves the home to keep peace in the family deserves some credit for doing so.

Myth: The house is in my spouse’s name, therefore he will get the house.

Fact: The fact that a house is titled in only one spouse’s name does not matter. Generally, any assets that someone has when they get married are considered part of what can be divided for the purposes of divorce, no matter where they came from.

Myth: Once the divorce is done, it’s done.

Fact: Not exactly. Some terms of a divorce agreement can be changed on a showing of a “substantial change in circumstances,” such as one party moving far away, spending less time with the children, the loss of a job or a large promotion that results in a significant increase in income, or as children get older, go to college, or move out of the house.

Myth: My spouse doesn’t need to support me or our children because he’s re-married.

Fact: Child support is not optional in Massachusetts. While the court does consider the existence of a second family, it will do so only after making sure the first family is taken care of. The Child Support Guidelines are a uniform way to ensure that children are provided with an appropriate amount of financial assistance. They can be found at www.massdor.gov.

Myth: My spouse had an affair, so he won’t get anything.

Fact: The fact that one spouse had an affair can be an embarrassment and, sadly, a stumbling block to resolving a case, but it will likely not make a substantial difference in the division of assets. Among the many factors considered in the equitable distribution of property in a marriage is the conduct of the parties (e.g. having an affair). This factor does not determine how assets will be distributed. However, if it can be shown that one spouse spent significant amounts of money on the affair, the other spouse would be credited for what was spent on a dollar for dollar basis.

Myth: Just like in the movie “War of the Roses,” divorce is inherently a mud-slinging battle.

Fact: While divorce can become a battle, it doesn’t have to be. There is a growing trend among lawyers to offer mediation as a way to bring people to an agreement by using a third person who helps guide the process. More recently, some lawyers have started to work together with their clients to find a resolution to their divorce through what is known as collaborative law. Collaborative law includes the use of specialists that both parties agree to work with — and pay for together — that help them deal with issues regarding the children, each other and the allocation of their finances. Both mediation and collaborative law allow the parties to help guide the process along, and aims to avoid the damage that can be caused through the litigation process. Finding an attorney who has experience in mediation or collaborative law is the key to making this successful.

Donald L. Pitman III, a family law attorney at Barron & Stadfeld of Boston, is a resident of Georgetown and lifelong resident of the North Shore. For more than a decade, he has helped clients in both collaborative and litigation-based divorces as well as other family law matters. For information, call 617-531-6597 or e-mail dp@barronstad.com.

Source : wickedlocal.com

It is no secret that good lawyers settle cases. In fact last year, parties got their proverbial “day in court” in only 4.3 percent of the civil cases filed in Maryland’s state courts. It is standard fare for litigators to participate in settlement negotiations and settlement conferences, and mediation has also become widely accepted by the bench and the bar as a useful settlement process in appropriate cases.

What is not so well known is a new settlement tool being used in divorce cases. It is called “collaborative lawyering,” and it appears to be gaining some momentum in Maryland. It was the central topic of a recent conference organized by the Family Law Section of the Baltimore County Bar.

The conference featured a group of attorneys from the newly formed Collaborative Law Society of MD, D.C. and VA. They explained the history and the process, referring frequently to collaborative law guru, Pauline Tesler, whose book, “Collaborative Law,” was recently published by the ABA’s Section of Family Law.

According to Tesler, this new process originated in Minnesota in the early 1990s, and now is being used by collaborative practice groups in pockets around the country, most notably in the Twin Cities and in Cincinnati. It is used almost exclusively in family cases, by parents who decide to divorce with the advice of counsel, but without the adversarial process that may…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

NEW RINGGOLD – Parents wage a bitter divorce war in court.

Lawyers get richer, and the children get sadder.

Does a divorce always have to end up in a court battle?

No.

Berks County lawyers were among attorneys here Thursday learning about a new style of settling disputes without using the courts.

It’s called collaborative law and is expected to start soon in Berks County Court.

“There was so much negativity in family law practice,” said Stuart Webb, a Minnesota family law lawyer who founded…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

For the first time in Europe, a compassionate and humanistic form of alternative dispute resolution called collaborative law was presented by the founder, Stuart Webb, and his co-trainer, Marion Korn, in Vienna on January 3.0, 2003. This relatively quick, cheap and effective no court option has been sweeping across cities in North America for more than I0 years but has not yet been practised in Europe. Given its acceptance by lawyers, in several cities in Canada it is now the dominant form of divorce law being practised. The lawyers who are becoming involved today are the pioneers who will be the leaders of tomorrow in collaborative law.

It has taken until January of…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

The local collaborative law chapter is still working to attract new members and spread the word that there’s a better way to resolve disputes than by combat in the courtroom.

“I’ve done two collaborative cases, and I’ve been impressed with both of them,” said Nickolas Alexander, who has been leading the formation of the local chapter. “I’ve probably injected the collaborative spirit in several other cases I’ve successfully worked on in the past couple of years.

“I believe, when the clients and the lawyers get out of that litigative mode and start thinking outside the box, there will be a lot less repeat litigation. People have input into what actually happens without a judge or lawyer twisting their arm, telling them what to do.”

Collaborative law began in Minnesota in 1990 when four family law attorneys gathered to discuss a new approach to divorce proceedings. Instead of putting the focus on litigation, their actions would have a peaceful settlement as the goal.

“I haven’t handled a collaborative case, but I got training with the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, “ said Hal Castillo. “I really feel it’s kind of the wave of the future. I believe it’s eventually going to be a part of everybody’s practice.”

Alexander and Castillo were two of the local lawyers attending the First Coast Collaborative Family Law meeting in Castillo’s office last week.

Others were:

• La’Re Holling-Hendrix, who, like Alexander, practices in Orange Park. She and Alexander successfully collaborated the first case in Clay County.

• Kitty Robbie, who practices family law in San Marco.

• Susan Daicoff, a professor of law at Florida Coastal School of Law. She teaches a class on the comprehensive law movement, which contains about 10 different emerging disciplines within the law. Collaborative law is one of those disciplines.

More : jaxdailyrecord.com

From Thursday’s Globe and Mail
There’s the fantasy wedding. Could there be the fantasy divorce? Artfully snip the old wedding dress, and the Bride of Divorce could wear it as a metaphor. The marriage is rent asunder, but hey, it was part of her life. Besides, she is back in the singles market, and a white, ripped mini-dress is kinda hot. He could wear a Teflon-coated tuxedo so that when they have a healing weep together, the tears will bead on the fabric.

Source : theglobeandmail.com

News that Paul McCartney is expecting to settle his divorce from Heather Mills for £60m after just five years of marriage may send a shudder down the spine of other couples who are not getting on as well as they used to. But husbands and wives who find themselves in this position could avoid much of the cost and unpleasantness of breaking up with financial planning.

One way to cut the cost, say lawyers, is to consider using a prenuptial agreement – something the McCartneys did not do. While prenuptial agreements are not legally binding in Britain, they are increasingly being taken into account by divorce courts and are not just the domain of the super rich. Several high-profile cases have spurred wealthy people to consider a prenuptial agreement.

They include Pamela White, a farmer from Somerset who was awarded half of her husband’s assets by the House of Lords in 2000; and Melissa Miller who got £5m of her husband Alan’s estimated £32m after less than three years of marriage.

Martin Karran, a divorce lawyer at Turner Parkinson, said anyone well-off enough to maintain two homes, and entering into a second marriage having already carved up assets following one divorce, should consider a prenuptial agreement – not just those with millions in the bank.

“The courts are taking prenuptial agreements much more seriously and, now, the court will need a reason not to uphold one,” said Mr Karran. Even if the court did not uphold the prenuptial agreement, it would most likely use it as a guide unless it was completely unfair to one party or drawn up in a way which was unfair, he said.

To satisfy the test of fairness, both parties must have independent legal advice before the prenuptial agreement is signed. Both must also make a full and frank disclosure of their assets at the time of the marriage. And the agreement must be signed at least 21 days before the wedding to ensure it is not whipped out on the eve of the marriage with the implicit threat “sign, or no wedding", which could be considered as undue influence.

More : telegraph.co.uk

A Trailblazing legal service aimed at making divorce less acrimonious was launched by lawyers in Aberdeen yesterday.

More than 20 solicitors in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire have trained in collaborative law - a US concept aimed at keeping divorce proceedings out of the courts and as civil as possible.

It also helps reduce the trauma and costs traditionally associated with divorce.

Yesterday, the solicitors launched the North-East Scotland Collaborative Law Association (Nescla), which includes 21 family-law solicitors in…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

In the last School’s In, we looked at some landmark cases about spousal support and you may have developed your own arguments for or against spousal support in the fictional case of Mutton v. Jefferson. In this School’s In, we will use a slightly modified version of Mutton v. Jefferson to take a look at the questions of child custody, access, and child support–this time trying out some Alternative Dispute Resolution techniques (for introductory level mock ADR exercises see School’s In, LawNow 21:3, April/May 1997, also available in the LawNow Online archives).

First, let’s look at Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as it is carried out today. Many versions of alternate dispute resolution are now being used, but they can, in general, be categorized by who is talking to whom and who is making the decisions. The diagrams at the right illustrate three basic types of ADR.

A Mediator/Lawyer Discusses the Use of ADR in Family Law

Now let’s hear what a person who works as a lawyer and mediator has to say about the use of ADR in family law (see also articles in this issue and “Mandatory Mediation” in LawNow Dec.2002/Jan 2003). Michelle Christopher is a Calgary lawyer who also works as a Dispute Resolution Officer. In the following, she points out some of the advantages of mediation in family cases:

“In family law, in particular, the legal profession has recognized that alternatives to going to court, such as mediation, can boost client satisfaction and preserve party relationships at the same time as reducing the time and expense of legal and court proceedings. In Alberta, for example, voluntary court-connected family mediation services have been available for a number of years to assist parties with family law problems to try to resolve their differences without litigation, or at least, to resolve as much as they can without litigation.

“Mediation services are increasingly offered by family law lawyers and others trained in dispute resolution and collaborative processes. The growing popularity of collaborative law has meant that in some jurisdictions, such as Medicine Hat, virtually no family law cases are being argued in court. And since December 2001, alternative dispute resolution has been mandatory for all Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench applicants seeking to apply for or vary child support orders, a highly successful initiative developed by the Hon. Madam Justice C.L. Kenny, which has resolved 70% of all matters going before the Dispute Resolution Office!

“How and why do these initiatives make a difference? When asked how alternative dispute resolution works, practitioners like to start by explaining the dispute resolution continuum, which sees negotiation between the parties at one end and litigation at the other; with processes such as collaborative law, conciliation, early neutral case evaluation, judicial dispute resolution, combined mediation/arbitration (med-arb), and arbitration alone filling out the spectrum in between. When parties agree privately on a dispute, they have the advantage of maintaining direct control over the outcome of the dispute, and theoretically, at least, each party will view the outcome as a win-win situation to which they have agreed. By contrast, in litigation, the parties surrender control over the outcome to the court, and invariably, one party wins and…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

If you want to end your marriage, you’re hardly alone. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 50% of all American marriages will end in divorce. About 17,500 divorces were finalized in Wisconsin in 2001.

But maybe you and your spouse agree on one thing: You don’t want a bitter fight. You’re determined to avoid the stereotypically ugly battles over property and child custody. In fact, you’d both be willing to sign a legally binding agreement stating that.

A “collaborative” divorce could work for you - or so a new consortium of lawyers, mental health professionals and financial advisers believes.

The Collaborative Family Law Council of Wisconsin takes a multidisciplinary approach to divorce. Mental health workers consult children and spouses, financial experts help divide assets equitably and lawyers trained in the method close the deal.

While some of those things could happen during traditional divorce proceedings or mediation, they probably would not be done by neutral parties. But perhaps a more significant difference is this: By agreement, neither party in a collaborative divorce can threaten to take the other to court, where there’s the risk, real or perceived, of losing everything and seeing private matters aired in public. Eliminating that risk, say advocates of collaborative divorce, changes the dynamics entirely.

There’s some concern among legal observers, who worry that the approach is untested. But supporters say it is an innovative way for a couple to “divorce with respect” without fear that a judge will dictate their family’s future.

“Contrary to our reputation of ripping families up, most lawyers who do divorce work know the harm that the system can do to families and children,” says council founder Gregg Herman, a Milwaukee attorney. “If people want warfare, they can get it. But for people who say, ‘We want to dance together at our children’s weddings,’ we believe there should be an avenue where lawyers work conducively to that desire.”

More : jsonline.com

The Solicitors Family Law Association is now known as ‘Resolution’. And with its push for collaborative law, the organisation is changing more than just its name. By Jon Robins

So it is goodbye to the dusty old ‘Solicitors Family Law Association’ (SFLA) and hello to the trendy new ‘Resolution’. Why did the 5,000- strong lawyers’ group, founded in 1982, opt for a single-word name more befitting an eighties jazz-fusion band than one of the most influential voices in family law? Apparently, it is one thing to have the ear of Whitehall policymakers and quite another to be recognised by ordinary folk on the street. The name change is also a response to a new approach to family law that is coming at us all the way from the US.

The SFLA’s lack of market penetration in awareness terms became obvious last year when it undertook its own market research. “We realised that nobody knew who we were,"…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Hunched over her desk at a large Pittsburgh law firm, attorney Rachel F. Green made a back-of-the-envelope calculation. Her firm’s legal fees in the divorce case she was litigating would roughly equal the assets at stake in the dispute.

That discomforting realization five years ago led Ms. Green in a new professional direction. She abandoned her career as a litigator and hung out her shingle at a collaborative law practice in Brooklyn.

Collaborative lawyers seek to avoid the high costs and emotional damage associated with traditional divorces by resolving legal disputes without litigation or the threat of litigation. Each party retains a specially trained attorney, and the lawyers and clients sign a binding agreement disqualifying…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Divorce can be an ugly affair. No one knows that better than ex-spouses, their families and the attorneys who represent them.

That’s why about 15 local attorneys recently were trained in collaborative law, a process in which disputes–in this case, divorce–are settled outside of court.

“People don’t know until they go through a divorce how horrible it is,” said family law attorney Stacey Strentz, who has litigated hundreds of divorces over 13 years with the Stafford County firm Rinehart, Lowery, Strentz & Butler, P.L.C. “It’s so expensive and so contentious and there are so many casualties.”

Strentz chairs the local group of collaborative attorneys and recently hosted an information session at her Fredericksburg home to get more family-law attorneys, mental-health professionals, financial advisers and other parties involved in the collaborative law movement.

Collaborative law differs from mediation in that mediators are barred from giving clients legal advice.

At minimum, the collaborative process involves four parties: husband, wife and an attorney representing each. All four sign a contract agreeing to negotiate and resolve all divorce-related issues (property, child custody, etc.) outside of court.

The contract also stipulates that both attorneys withdraw from the case if either client decides to pursue litigation.

“It’s a better way to work through the process,” Strentz said.

More : fredericksburg.com

Attorneys say collaborative law is less stressful and more economical

Denny Crane would hate collaborative law.

The antics of the fictional, bloated egoist of an advocate, William Shatner’s Crane on “Boston Legal,” barely fit in a television courtroom, much less a negotiation without a judge, jury or opportunity to appeal.

Collaborative law replaces in-court, short-term, zealous advocacy with confidential meetings guided by a pact to settle legal issues out of court, said one of the movement’s founders in New Mexico, Gretchen Walther, an attorney and president of the New Mexico Collaborative Practice Group.

The relatively new settlement process also acknowledges…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Town Board Proclaims June Wellness Month in Penfield

WHEREAS, The Penfield Town Board declares June 2007 ‘Wellness Month’ in Penfield; and
WHEREAS, each Penfield resident can benefit from adopting a more active and healthy lifestyle by living well; and
WHEREAS, with our many scenic parks, trails, waterways, and recreation areas, Penfield is already a wonderful
place to live well; and
WHEREAS, the Town Board is committed to making it easy, fun, and convenient for all residents to learn and enjoy
these resources and utilize them on a more regular basis; and
WHEREAS, your Town government supports several initiatives to celebrate wellness in June, including the award winning
Wegmans Penfield Passport to Family Wellness program, which highlights our extensive trails network; and a
new program that will reward those who use Penfield Recreation Department’s services; and
WHEREAS, living well would improve the quality of life and well-being of all our residents; and
WHEREAS, The Town Board and Supervisor George Wiedemer are also supporting wellness education for Town
employees and encouraging them to strive to maintain a positive, active, healthy lifestyle; and
WHEREAS, Town employees are our best advocates for wellness. They are joining lunchtime walking groups, and
preparing healthy snacks to share with co-workers; and
WHEREAS, wellness is an ongoing pursuit for Town of Penfield employees, who, in turn, are passing along their
enthusiasm in their neighborhoods and with friends and setting a positive example for others; and
WHEREAS, the Town of Penfield is excited to offer programs and activities to encourage Wellness in our community;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board, on behalf of the Town of Penfield, proclaims that June
2007 is Wellness Month in our community.

More : democratandchronicle.com

A divorce reached through collaboration might sound odd for couples headed toward Splitsville. Same goes for their attorneys, who make serious dough when breakups are drawn-out and dirty.

Yet 25 bay area lawyers and a growing number of their clients have embraced “collaborative divorce,” a process that restores the give-and-take lost somewhere after “I do.”

“What’s left after the massacre?” Tampa marital law attorney Nancy Harris said of traditional divorce. “It feels better to win with this process.”

Traditional divorces don’t always go to trial. Many go to mediation, where an arbitrator stays neutral while everyone else takes sides.

The collaborative concept puts participants on the same team. Spouses and attorneys come together with mental health and financial experts read: no judges for meetings. Before each meeting, they agree on an agenda focused on child support, asset division and alimony.

They go to the courthouse only when it’s time for a judge to sign off on the final settlement.

More : sptimes.com

Every time I hear about a divorce-related homicide or suicide, I am reminded of the fragility of the clients family law attorneys represent. Since I focus my entire law practice on family law, divorces included, I often find myself examining my advocacy skills and tactics, to reassure myself that I am, in fact, helping my clients, rather than damaging them further in the dissolution process. However, even the best family lawyers can become overzealous, in an effort to advance their client’s legal position. In the medical profession, doctors have a mandate to “first, do no harm.” We have no equivalent mandate in family law, but perhaps we should approach our cases as if we did, if, for no other reason than the vulnerability of our divorcing clients.

Many of our clients happen to be parents, who have years of interaction and co-parenting ahead of them. If we have managed to derail their parenting…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

A summerlong crackdown on cybercrime has resulted in arrests or convictions of more than 150 individuals, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Thursday.

As part of a 3-month-long collaborative probe, law enforcement officials across the nation have returned 117 criminal complaints stemming from an array of scams. The common thread: The crimes involved computers and the Internet. They bilked about 150,000 victims for losses topping $215 million.

“Operation Web Snare is the largest and most successful collaborative law-enforcement operation ever conducted to prosecute online fraud, stop identity theft and prevent other computer-related crimes,” Ashcroft told reporters.

“We do not believe the Internet to be off base for law enforcement,” he said. “We will be there with as much intensity and presence as we can muster.”

Security experts praise the government’s enforcement actions but note that cybercriminals remain in the driver’s seat.

And, they say, contrary to initial media reports, regulators did not focus on slowing ordinary spam, most of which was made illegal by the Can-Spam Act, which took effect in January.

More : usatoday.com

Q. My wife and I have been “tolerating” each other in the same house for more than 25 years. Although we knew the marriage was on the rocks after our third child, we decided to wait until all the children were educated and out of the house. That day has come and gone, but we still occupy separate bedrooms, and although we talk of divorce, the more we read and hear, the less inclined we are to give a bunch of blood-thirsty lawyers a shot at making us more miserable and less financially stable. We have gone to a financial planner and mediator on our own, without success. I am 54 and she is 52. We each have quite a few good years left, and although we don’t…

Source : accessmylibrary.co

The Florida Chapter of the Association of Family, Court, and Community Professionals is teaming up with the Florida Supreme Court Family Court Steering Committee to lead a symposium in early November called Enhancing Collaboration to Better Serve Children and Families.”

The FLAFCC is a statewide chapter of the international…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

A small plaque on Paul Baertschi’s desk contains a quotation from the 18th-century Irish politician Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” That philosophy helps guide Baertschi, a criminal prosecutor for the small Minneapolis firm of Tallen and Baertschi, and his work as president of the Minnesota chapter of the Christian Legal Society, a 45-year-old national organization consisting of Christian attorneys, judges, law professors and law students. While the national CLS advocates for freedom of religious expression and for pro-life causes, Baertschi said the local chapter stays away from lobbying on behalf of such hot-button issues. “We’re not interested in going to the Legislature and talking about those topics,” he said. “We’re more concerned with Christian fellowship and outreach into the community.” The 35 members of the Minnesota CLS chapter, mostly from small and solo practices, seek to infuse their law practices with…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

“How many lawyers does it take to screw in a light bulb?” “Fifty four,” goes the joke. “Eight to argue, one to get a continuance, one to object, one to demur, two to research precedents, one to dictate a letter, one to stipulate, five to turn in their timecards, one to depose, one to write interrogatories, two to settle, one to order a secretary to change the bulb, and 29 to bill for professional services.”

Eh, not so funny, notes Maurine Holland, a lawyer in midtown Memphis, Tenn. - and it has nothing to do with her anymore. Yes, she is a lawyer. But not that kind.

“People would call me the pit bull,” recalls Ms. Holland of her life in the courtroom up until a few years ago. “But then I had a transformation.”

Holland’s transformation has led her to join a small but growing group of lawyers, judges, and educators who practice law holistically - working to empower and heal themselves and their clients and to spread civility and good will. In the world of holistic law, the minds and bodies of the clients are as important as their pocketbooks; losing sometimes means winning in the long run; and words like blame, right, and wrong have no home. It is not, in any case, 54 lawyers around a light bulb.

While each holistic lawyer works in a different way, they draw common inspiration from Eastern traditions, New Age writers, and native American spirituality. Much like holistic doctors who seek to treat the whole patient instead of the symptoms, explains Holland, holistic lawyers think of their clients as complex people in need of counseling, not entities with narrow legal problems.

More : csmonitor.com

When Ken and Abbe Hitchcock decided to end their 18-year marriage, their priority was to spare their three children the nastiness and recriminations that often fly back and forth between a divorcing couple.

“We did not want to get into a standard her-side vs. my-side argument,” said Ken Hitchcock of McKinney, Texas, a vice president for an apartment development and construction company. “We did not want to be unusually cruel or draw any more pain and suffering to the situation than it already had.”

The emotionally wrenching experience associated with divorce has led some couples and their lawyers to adopt a relatively new legal model to make divorce negotiations fairer and more beneficial to couples. It’s known as “collaborative family law” or collaborative divorce.

Collaborative law is a process aimed at making divorce less acrimonious and more cooperative among the parties.

Lawyers who practice collaborative law say it’s a refreshing alternative for an American legal system that’s based on adversaries battling it out in court.

“People are much happier with their results,” said Janet Brumley, a partner at Verner & Brumley in Dallas. “It’s the sense of control that is so much better in collaborative law. Instead of lawyers and judges being in control, the control still remains very firmly with the husband and wife.”

In a collaborative divorce, a couple and their lawyers sign a contract, agreeing to dissolve…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

The Professionalism Aspirations adopted by the Minnesota Supreme Court last January are just one of a number of initiatives with the objectives of: (1) raising public confidence in the legal system and the profession; (2) defending a separate professional morality committed to a transcendental purpose from the reductive pressure of the market to define all relationships as employer/employee or service provider/customer; (3) reducing dependence on a highly adversarial litigation model to resolve conflict; (4) moving towards a broader conception of counseling with both individual and organizational clients; and (5) reducing lawyer psychological stress and increasing quality of work life.

The Professionalism Aspirations call the bar towards high aspiration, but it is just a piece of paper. University of Denver law professor…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

The ABA (Chicago, IL) has produced Collaborative Law: Achieving Effective Resolution in Divorce without Litigation, a handbook that examines the dispute resolution model of collaborative law now being used in divorce proceedings. Suggesting that the model can help customize outcomes, lower fees and Costs and enable divorcing spouses to…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Charlotte lawyer Robert S. Blair Jr. has this advice for anyone who wants to practice family law: hold on to your sense of humor.

A Bar-certified family law specialist and co-chair of the Mecklenburg County Bar family law section, Blair says the rise in collaborative law may be helping some family lawyers cope with stress.

In a Q&A with Lawyers Weekly, Blair described the typical cases he handles, his most memorable case and common traps that lawyers fall into when handling family law matters.

Q: What got you interested in family law?

A: I found the subject interesting in law school. There was a face to it and a personal aspect missing in some other business related areas of the law.

Q: Who is your typical client?

A: Typically, a husband or wife whose marriage is dissolving and they are facing…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Divorce is as widespread as the common cold, as painful as a stab to the chest and as costly as a trip to the Bahamas.

More than half the marriages in the United States now end in divorce, and more couples than ever are saying “I donÕt.” Some blame the divorce rate on the liberal no-fault laws set in motion in the 1960s to mitigate earlier laws that restricted granting divorces to cases involving cruelty, incurable mental illness or adultery.

Others fault society’s growing rejection of commitment and monogamy. A Time/CNN poll reported that 45 percent of respondents said couples don’t take marriage seriously.

Regardless of where the responsibility lies, divorce needs some professional help.

Social organizations and many churches have developed programs to strengthen marriages and provide emotional support for couples and children of divorce. And a growing number of couples are opting to resolve their divorces through mediation sessions to avoid the high costs and hassle of traditional courtroom divorces.

The financial burdens of divorce are crippling. Divorce can cost families hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on whether children are involved and how much property a couple has to divide. Of the more than 1 million U.S. couples expected to split this year, the average pair will shell out $18,000 in lawyer fees and paperwork. Americans for Divorce Reform estimates that divorces cost taxpayers about $30 billion each year in processing fees and court costs.

Casey Alexander, president of the Fort Worth chapter of Texas Fathers for Equal Rights, attributes the expenses to an adversarial divorce system that encourages partners to tear each other down. Lawyers who make their livings off litigating contested divorces are in no rush to speed up the process, he said, and many of them drag out the costly paperwork longer than needed or incite more disagreements between the parties.

More : wacotrib.com

Rosemarie S. Roth was recently reelected president of the Collaborative Family Lawyers Institute in Miami.

Other institute officers included are Judith Hodor, treasurer, and Raquel A. Rodriguez, secretary.

The Collaborative Family Lawyers Institute, established three and one half years ago, has made training a high priority.

The institute is…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

A collaborative family law seminar titled “Developing Conceptual Frameworks and Critical Skills in Collaborative Family Law” is set for February 19-20 in Ft. Lauderdale.

Chip Rose, a nationally known collaborative law trainer, will lead the seminar, which is open to attorneys, as well as financial and mental health professionals,…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Q: My husband and I decided to separate after 14 years of marriage and two children. We are both college-educated, employed, know our finances better than anyone else, know what it will take each of us to live, and understand our children’s needs. In order to save money, we decided not to hire lawyers, whom we believe could escalate our cooperative attitude into a court fight. Instead, we have read books and some of your columns, and spent time on the Internet getting a list of items that should be included in our agreement.

We have prepared several versions of an agreement, and…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Arguing couples spending fortunes in legal fees. Spouses using their children as bargaining tools. Weeks dragging into months as husband and wife fight over assets and belongings gathered during the happy years of their marriage.

Ask any family lawyer and he or she will tell you this can be a common divorce scenario.

But now, some Florida family attorneys are taking matters in a different direction – a non-adversarial one.

Family lawyers in several circuits are promising their clients to stay out of court, making the entire process better for the attorneys, the court system, the clients, and, most importantly, any children involved.

Both collaborative law and cooperative divorce are spreading rapidly across the state as more and more attorneys tout the merits of these non-adversarial methods’ and more and more clients learn the benefits of working together to stay out of court.

Collaborative Law

Created by Minneapolis solo Stuart Webb 10 years ago to remedy his dissatisfaction with adversarial family law, the collaborative law model emphasizes positive negotiation to stay out of court.

Both parties and their lawyers agree, typically in a written contract, to negotiate a settlement out of court. If the parties. can’t reach an agreement, the lawyers for both sides must withdraw, and the parties have to hire new lawyers to litigate the case.

With the threat of court removed, divorcing couples and their lawyers have an incentive to cooperate and settle the matter as quickly and fairly as possible. And, unlike divorce mediation, both parties have the assistance of an…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

It is unfortunate when marriages or relationships break down and couples part ways. There is often a significant cost to the break down of that relationship, financially and emotionally. We have all heard stories of bitter, ugly divorces and some of the unbelievable antics that go on between two people who were once involved in a loving relationship. Divorce can be messy–but a group of Saskatchewan lawyers have found a process to help people avoid the messy divorce. It’s called collaborative family law.

Collaborative family law takes people out of the adversarial court process, where former spouses battle one another and a…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Many things in life require cooperation between people to achieve success. Marriage, business relationships and divorce, are a few examples.

Twelve Kansas City area attorneys are finding out if it is possible to help two people achieve a peaceful, successful divorce where both parties leave more satisfied than most court-tried dissolutions. The idea came from Minnesota attorney Stuart Webb, who began his system of collaborative law over 10 years ago after getting tired of the dead-end arguments that arise in dissolutions. The Kansas City attorneys began their own project last November.

“Often, there is not a good result that comes out of litigating a divorce,” attorney Karen Plax said. Due to the multitude of issues confronted in dissolutions, Plax said family court judges are often not able to view the full case, and must base their decisions on the small window of information presented to them in court.

“Divorce cases are just not ideally suited for the court system,” Plax said. “The public thinks they’ll get justice in court.”

“They think they will get the chance to tell their story,” attorney Hugh O’Donnell III said.

So rather than fighting it out in court, Plax and her colleagues formed the Collaborative Law Institute of Missouri. These 12 attorneys, all working independently of one another, have…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Matrimony sometimes leads to acrimony, followed by alimony.

“I do” becomes “I don’t much like you.”

Before “Till death do us part” is transformed into “Part of me wishes for your death,” before she thinks of her groom only with gloom and he considers her his awfully wedded wife, many couples call it quits.

In the thin space between the bittersweet cooling of love and the intense heat of hatred, a number of local attorneys say, lies the opportunity for husbands and wives to break up with a minimum of heartbreak, and with their dignity and bank accounts more or less still intact.

Sweet reason can prevail before all hell breaks loose.

And all hell can and does break loose once the thrill is gone and the chill is on.

“It can get pretty ugly,” admitted Dublin attorney Robert N. Wistner, who has over 30 years of experience, much of it in the practice of family law. “They can call everybody in the other spouse’s family and tell everybody what a horrible person the spouse is.

“The children are the ones who suffer the most in divorce,” Wistner added.

He recalled an instance in which a mother and father feuded over custody of their children for years, so many years, in fact, that some of the children had become adults before the matter was resolved.

“It was just an awful situation,” Wistner said.

“It can just get so bad that the children are torn between the parents, the parents talk badly about each other to the children, the parents require the children to take sides and say who they want to live with, so you’ve got all that trauma and emotional damage for children,” said lawyer Bobbie Corley O’Keefe, who resides in Gahanna.

More : thisweeknews.com

All divorces involve decisions and choices such as which financial/legal and/or medical professionals to use and how to utilise their help. These decisions can powerfully affect whether a divorce moves forward smoothly or not. Some couples resolve all their divorce issues without any professional assistance whatsoever. More frequently, some couples engage in drawn out courtroom battles, which drains the family’s emotional and financial resources, are destructive to relationships and can take considerable time to complete. Most people find that their needs fall between these two extremes.

These decisions can powerfully affect whether a divorce moves forward smoothly or not.

Everyone is familiar with the usual process of obtaining a divorce through the Court system, using traditional litigation techniques such as tactical bargaining. However, a new concept recently introduced in Ireland, which is well established in America and recently…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Michael P. Shea of Shea, Kohl, Alessi & O’Donnell was recently accepted into the Collaborative Family Law Association. There are only 25 such attorneys in the St. Louis area; Shea is one of only three trained collaborative law attorneys in the St. Charles County Westplex area. As…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Is having an opponent our way of life? Is litigation an efficient and responsible means of resolving disagreements? Is advocating for a client, to the detriment of the “other” side, acceptable? Or, is there a recipe for peaceful resolution of differences? What if the disagreeing parties agree to engage in full disclosure, waive confidentiality on relevant details and deal in good faith with…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

M2 PRESSWIRE-4 February 2002-Collaborative Family Law Council of Wisconsin: Collaborative Family Law Council of Wisconsin Training Seminar ©1994-2002 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

RDATE:04022002

Wisconsin, USA – The Collaborative Family Law Council of Wisconsin is pleased to announce that it is hosting a multi-disciplinary Collaborative Divorce training seminar March 8-9, 2002 at the Hilton-Milwaukee City Center, 509 W….

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Problem-solving negotiation lies at the heart of all alternative dispute resolution. Mediation is well-known as an effective and accepted method of negotiating disputes and conflicts. However, the willingness to come to the table using a concept known as collaborative law takes negotiation to the point of being both the “means” and the “end” to resolving disputes.

The concept of collaborative family law was started over a decade ago by Stu Webb, a lawyer out of Minnesota. Disgusted with the animosity and acrimony (which often was as pronounced between the attorneys as it was with the litigants) that were the trademarks of a traditional domestic relations practice, he decided that “there had to be a better way.” The idea of earnestly sitting together with his opponent, client and his client’s spouse, and finding the common ground necessary to resolve the custody, support, property division and fee issues appeared to be the natural 180 degree evolution into…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Collaborative law has grown steadily in popularity since Minneapolis divorce lawyer Stuart Webb first introduced the concept in the 1990s.

But since Feb. 24, practitioners and supporters have been buzzing about an unwelcome development. On that day, the Colorado Bar Association issued an ethics opinion concluding that collaborative law is unethical per se.

Collaborative law is a dispute resolution method in which lawyers and clients for both sides vow to resolve a matter without litigation. If negotiations fail, the lawyers (and their firms) must withdraw from the case, and the clients hire new counsel to take the claim to court.

The 2,000-member International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP) in San Francisco reports that collaborative law is widely practiced, and increasingly, legislatures and courts are adopting rules encouraging its use. In February, the American Bar Association formally embraced the concept with the creation of the…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

In response to dissatisfaction with the excesses of the adversary system, we are seeing the development of a number of new alternative approaches to the practice of law and the resolution of conflict. The comprehensive law movement, which is the umbrella concept capturing these alternative approaches, includes among others: preventive law, restorative justice, collaborative law, creative problem-solving and therapeutic jurisprudence.

Professor Susan Daicoff finds that the common theme among all these approaches is that they “deal more comprehensively, humanely, positively (from a psychological viewpoint) and creatively with the individuals, relationships, communities and effects presented by the particular legal matter at hand.” All the approaches intersect at two points. First, they all “attempt to optimize the psychological well-being of the individuals, relationships, and communities touched by each legal matter,” and second, they all “acknowledge the importance of concerns beyond simply the strict legal rights, duties, and obligations of the parties.” The skill of counseling the client, whether an individual or an organization, to understand fully both the broader context of a legal matter, and the client’s best interests in that context is foundational in the comprehensive law movement.

One of the vectors of the comprehensive law movement is collaborative law, which was conceived by a Minnesota lawyer, Stuart Webb, as a means to assist couples going through divorce. (See “Local lawyer celebrates a decade of ecollaborative’ divorces” in the Oct. 2, 2000 issue of Minnesota Lawyer.) Daicoff describes collaborative law as a “nonlitigative, collaborative process … where the spouses and their respective attorneys resolve the issues outside of court in a four-party process. It differs from mediation in that no third party is involved. …. It differs from traditional settlement negotiations in that: (1) no formal court proceedings are usually instituted until settlement is reached; and (2)…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

CHELMSFORD, Mass.–Is there really such a thing as a completely amicable divorce? Yes, there can be, says Lynda J. Robbins, a Chelmsford-based family law attorney who specializes in a process called “collaborative law.”

Instead of agonizing oneself through an overburdened court system, the practice, first developed by a Minneapolis attorney in 1990, has emerged as a viable alternative to traditional divorce proceedings.

In collaborative law, both parties and their specially trained lawyers make a commitment – in writing – to work together to come up with a settlement that is equitable to both sides.

Robbins, who is also a trained…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Collaborative divorce” sounds a little like “tea-party rumble,” “peaceful war,” “polite battle” – pick your own contradictory pair.

But it is an up-and-coming way for couples to work together on taking apart their marriages. When Lori and Bob Tricarico decided to divorce in 2004 after 16 years of marriage, they wanted to spare their daughters, then 12 and 10, from the fallout. “They were very much our main concern; we wanted to go through the whole divorce process in a way that would be the least damaging for them,” says Lori Tricarico, 40, talking by phone from her home in the Atlanta area. The Tricaricos say they found the solution for their dissolution in a collaborative divorce. At the heart of the procedure is the belief that the old-school adversarial legal split leaves both spouses at a loss, in pocketbook and in spirit. It works on the idea that though it takes two to tangle, it takes a team to split up. The team is built around one attorney for each client, and the divorce settlement is reached through four-way sessions. Typically, each spouse also has a divorce coach (a mental-health professional) and the couple may share a financial specialist and child specialist. “What we’re finding is when clients hear about the collaborative process, they tend to choose it,” says Hal Bartholomew, an attorney who co-founded the Sacramento Collaborative Practice Group in 1998. “I think in five to 10 years people will see collaborative divorce as the No. 1 way to go.” The divorce is then negotiated by the couple, with assistance from the team. “What I like about collaborative is that it’s the clients’ process. In the legal system, it’s not their process; it’s the court…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Collaborative law is a relatively new way of resolving disputes and today, it gained significant approval from the Family Law Council, the Federal Attorney-General, and the Chief Judge of the Family Court.

Collaborative law is a way of solving legal disputes, or family separations, by avoiding court. In fact, collaborative lawyers agree to be sacked from the case, if they can’t negotiate a settlement which pleases both sides of the dispute.

Sabra Lane reports.

SABRA LANE: A jaded American lawyer invented the concept collaborative law in the 1990s.

He thought it was stupid that often, despite months of wrangling, and thousands wasted in legal fees, many marriage bust-ups were finally settled through negotiation on the day they made it to court.

He wondered if that negotiation process could happen without going anywhere near a courtroom.

Under this type of dispute resolution, all negotiations happen face-to-face.

Collaborative lawyer, Lorraine Lopich.

LORRAINE LOPICH: It gives the clients back their dignity, and it gives them back the dignity of being in control of resolving those matters themselves but with the assistance of lawyers. If it goes to litigation, the lawyers must disqualify themselves. They cannot continue in the process.

SABRA LANE: John Pollard, the President of Collaborative Professionals New South Wales, says in divorce cases involving children, collaborative law can take the retribution out of settlements.

More : abc.net.au

Much is being made these days about saving marriages, about encouraging new ones and fixing those gone bad.

Federal funding is earmarked for marriage initiatives, and experts continue to preach strategies designed to make marriage last.

At the same time, however, a quieter, more gradual change has taken hold. With national rates still hovering around 50 percent, divorce is all-pervasive, but it’s also no longer widely seen as a mark of shame or an unforgivable act.
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And the experiences of those struggling through what has often been a grueling and emotional process have profoundly reshaped society’s response.

Today, institutions as traditional as school and churches have learned to accommodate divorce with increased help and heightened sensitivity.

Shara Graham, a two-time divorcee, believes it’s a healthy change.

The Morrisville, N.C., resident went through her first divorce in 1975. “Back then, even your pastor didn’t want to talk to you about it,” Graham says.

After her second marriage ended in 2001, she says she found acceptance and support in the church. She now leads the church-based program that helped her. “It’s light-years from what it was 30 years ago,” she says.

Stephanie Coontz, director of research and public education for the Council on Contemporary Families, says the end of a marriage should get the same consideration as its beginning.

“Society should surround divorce with the same norms as we do marriage, with expectations, with standards of how to do it right. Let’s say: Here’s what we expect of people who divorce,” she says.

More : azcentral.com

Stuart S. Greenfeig and Darcy A. Shoop have been named to the 2008 list of Best Lawyers in America, a leading referral guide to the legal profession in the U.S. Greenfeig was recognized in the areas of collaborative law and family law, and Shoop in the area of collaborative law. For over 30 years, Greenfeig, a principal of Stein Sperling, has dedicated himself to serving his clients on a range of sensitive issues including divorce,…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Collaborative law is be coming increasingly popular, for reasons well stated by Pauline Tesler in her article in the Winter, 1999 issue of the American Journal of Family Law (Vol. 13, number 4, p. 215). In brief summary, collaborative law consists of lawyers and clients committing to resolving their issues by settlement, and not by litigation. Each party is separately represented, and both clients and lawyers commit to voluntary full disclosure of all relevant information. If settlement fails, the collaborative lawyers must withdraw, and turn over the case to litigation counsel. Experts are brought in, but only as neutrals. They too must also commit to withdrawing if settlement fails. The disincentive to litigation is the financial and emotional cost of starting over with new representation. (See Tesler, pp. 219-220.)

However, as with all innovations, newly created procedures bring with it new ethical issues to be resolved. For collaborative

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Accounting, auditing and tax expertise–as well as objectivity–are important qualities CPAs have traditionally used to assist divorcing parties. However, an innovative new option in Michigan–utilizing collaborative law–may create more opportunities for CPAs to provide advisory services as part of a team approach to “no-court” divorce settlements.

Traditional Divorce Consulting

In an October 2003 Journal of Accountancy article titled, “Starting Over,” Thomas Burrage pointed out several key areas in which CPAs historically have played significant roles in the area of divorce consulting.

* Analysis of financial data according to a range of statutes, regulations, rulings and case law. CPAs do NOT and cannot practice law. However they must have a general knowledge of local matrimonial statutes and case law in order to engage in divorce relations consulting.

* Organization of financial issues related to property settlements and support awards.

* Examination of a couple’s financial records to determine the value of their net assets, jointly and individually; whether assets are encumbered; who earns how much; how much income should be attributed to each spouse, particularly self-employed individuals.

* Addressing the tax consequences of various forms of support and property division.

* Discovery of…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Collaborative law was born when family lawyers found a way to make divorce a more civil and client-directed experience. However, whenever disputants wish to resolve their conflict respectfully and fairly while preserving their relationship, the principles of collaborative practice can be used.

These principles are a pledge not to go to court, an honest exchange of information, and a solution that takes into account the highest priorities of both parties.

Here is an illustration of non-family applications of collaborative practice:

John Randolph walked through the door labeled, “Anthony W. Kron, Attorney at Law.” Randolph had heard good things about Kron and had asked for this meeting to give himself a chance to size up the lawyer and possibly retain him in a suit against one of Randolph’s longtime trucking customers.

“What can I do for you?” Kron asked a few minutes later.

“I own a trucking company. We do long-distance hauling, primarily between the East Coast and the West Coast. One of my customers, who has been with us for 10 years or so, is refusing to pay for a delivery we made to Los Angeles because it got there late and I guess that cost him some. The late delivery wasn’t our fault. I hate losing him as a customer, but I can’t afford to write off one complete cross-country load. I need you to sue him and get us the trucking fee we earned.”

More : masslive.com

If you were to create a legal process to end your marriage, would you want the judge to make the decisions for you or would you want to retain control?

When the judge is in charge, all your energies are focused on promoting yourself. You want the judge to know the best things about you and the worst things about your spouse. If you want custody of your children, for example, you will position yourself as the better parent by giving examples of your spouse’s bad parenting decisions.

Your lawyer will help you build the most effective arguments. Your spouse, of course, will be doing the same against you. The judge may appoint an investigator to gather additional information in order to decide where your children will live, and when and how often each of you will see them.

Once the judge has made a decision, you and your spouse will be expected to work together to raise your children by following the schedule imposed on you by the court. Clearly, this is not a recipe for peace and cooperation.

In 1990, an experienced family lawyer ended a long, hotly contested divorce trial swearing he would never do it again. Stuart Webb believed that the existing system was failing families. He felt there had to be a better way to end a marriage - one where the divorcing couple could retain control of the decisions.

He enlisted other like-minded family lawyers in Minneapolis to move away from the blame game and encourage clients to focus on the future. Recognizing that we live in a society where 50 percent of marriages end, divorce would be treated as a normal, predictable life passage.

The lawyers would act as legal counselors, not adversaries, to help their clients build a new relationship, one that would be different and less intimate, but no less valuable. This would allow divorcing couples to retain their dignity and self-respect as they built their separate lives.

More : masslive.com

Imagine if you could play a key role in drafting your own divorce settlement without spending a day in a courtroom fretting that your fate lies in the hands of a judge.

This approach, advocated by lawyers from a movement called collaborative law, aims to resolve marital disputes instead of girding the parties for bruising custody battles and costly paper chases.

If the spouses and their lawyers agree beforehand to resolve all financial and custody issues in a series of candid, carefully planned four-way meetings, couples can save money while crafting creative solutions to disputes over alimony, child support and shared custody.

“It’s revolutionary. You can resolve conflict without exacting revenge by working through the pain and the conflict. Collaborative law allows an opportunity to sit down and brainstorm,” said Paula Hopkins, a Downtown lawyer who is president of the Collaborative Law Association of Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Her association, a 20-member group of lawyers trained in this technique, opened an office in March in the Frick Building.

Collaborative law began in 1990 after a Minnesota divorce lawyer, Stuart G. Webb, fed up after an especially ugly case, founded the movement. Among other places, collaborative lawyers practice in Canada, California, New York and Washington, D.C. The approach is also popular in Rochester, N.Y.; Cincinnati; Texas; and Arizona.

More : post-gazette.com

Breaking up is hard to do, not to mention expensive, as any of the more than 1 million couples who divorce each year can tell you. In fact, the decision to end a marriage is often the prelude to serious financial pain marked by a battle over the division of property, lofty legal bills and each spouse feeling as if he or she got the raw end of the deal.

It doesn’t have to be that way. If you and your spouse ever decide to part company, collaborative divorce may be the best way to avoid the rancor and expense that typically accompany a split. This relatively new way to formally end a marriage emphasizes cooperation over confrontation, and problem solving over grievance airing. And it rests the decision-making power in the hands of the couple rather than those of a judge.

Here’s how it works: Couples agree in writing to forgo the courts and negotiate a fair settlement directly. Unlike in mediation, where splitting spouses are guided by a neutral third party, husband and wife are each assisted by a lawyer so they have the benefit of individual counsel. If the two sides can’t agree, the lawyers can’t represent their clients in any future court case–a clause intended as an incentive for everyone to get it right the first time. “In traditional litigation, the attorneys fight to get the biggest piece of the pie for their client,” says Dallas family lawyer Larry Hance. “In collaborative law, the focus is on a settlement that works for everyone.”

Playing nice pays off. In addition to the promise of a more equitable settlement, the costs are much lower, with estimated savings from 40% to 65%, largely because there’s less likelihood of a protracted legal battle. If a typical divorce case runs about $35,000, the bill for the same split negotiated collaboratively would more likely be $12,000 to $20,000. The result is, there’s more left for you and your ex to divide.

More : money.cnn.com

Q. My wife and I have been “tolerating” each other in the same house for more than 25 years. Although we knew the marriage was on the rocks after our third child, we decided to wait until all the children were educated and out of the house. That day has come and gone, but we still occupy separate bedrooms, and although we talk of divorce, the more we read and hear, the less inclined we are to give a bunch of blood-thirsty lawyers a shot at making us more miserable and less financially stable. We have gone to a financial planner and mediator on our own, without success. I am 54 and she is 52. We each have quite a few…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Collaborative law, a national movement that started here in Minnesota in the early 1990s, recently got an important form of recognition from the state Supreme Court – enshrinement in the General Rules of Practice.

While local collaborative law practitioners are pleased to have the high court’s imprimatur in the form of specific rules on the process, some wish the court had gone even further in providing guidance.

Collaborative law, which began being used in the early 90s, requires a formal commitment by both parties to a dispute to seek resolution in a more cooperative manner than traditional litigation. The new rules, adopted by the high court late last month:

* formally define collaborative law;

* mandate that courts defer scheduling in cases where parties agree to collaborative law; and

* allow those who’ve engaged in the process unsuccessfully to forgo using another ADR process while

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Divorce is never nice – but it doesn’t have to be nasty.

That’s the theory behind collaborative law, a friendlier way of dissolving a marriage.

Unlike court cases, collaborative law relies on problem-solving negotiations with no adversarial tactics.

Sound intriguing?

Here’s how it works: Each party hires a lawyer, agreeing up front to be respectful and honest.

All four people schedule meetings and agree to participate in an open discussion.

At each get-together, they hash out their differences, deciding who will have custody of the kids, how…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

The divorce proceedings had not been pretty. Fraught with hurtful recriminations over infidelities and other bitter circumstances, the couple came to St. Paul family lawyer Mary Antonia Wilmes to work out a divorce agreement. Wilmes used the principles of collaborative law to get the two sides together, and after weeks of sometimes rancorous discussions, the couple came to their final meeting and told Wilmes that they had come from the bedside of their daughter, who was in the psychiatric ward of a local hospital.

“They would never have gone to see her together before that,” recalls Wilmes. “I couldn’t imagine the regret they would feel later if they hadn’t been able to be there for their daughter that way.”

Wilmes gives much of the credit for the successful resolution of that case to the use of collaborative law. Like a growing number of family lawyers, Wilmes is a strong believer in collaborative law, which values cooperation over confrontation and encourages lawyers – and the parties they represent – to share information, treating cases like problems to be solved rather than bloody battles to be won.

As part of the collaborative law method, both parties retain separate attorneys whose job it is to help them settle the dispute, as they would in a normal case. The main difference is that the case cannot go to court. If that should happen, the collaborative law process terminates and both attorneys are disqualified from…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

In the words of divorce lawyer Gavin D’Amato: “There is no winning! Only degrees of losing!”

Though Danny DeVito’s character in the 1989 dark comedy “War of the Roses” dealt with one of the most hostile fictional splits of all time, his warning to Michael Douglas’ Oliver Rose still rings true with lawyers who litigate real-life divorces.

Now, a group of family law attorneys in the Charlottesville area is joining a growing divorce movement that strives to help couples end their marriages without the acrimony and the loss of time, money and control associated with going to court. Collaborative law lawyers shed the “attack-dog” label and the unsettling feelings that accompany it.

“Doing collaborative law has changed my life,” said Susan White, a Charlottesville lawyer who switched to the new practice after 30 years of doing litigation. “Court is exciting, but it’s stressful. There are a lot of sleepless nights. Clients are usually really happy or really unhappy.”

More : dailyprogress.com

The Dallas Bar Association and the Texas Collaborative Law Council will present the third annual Civil Collaborate Law Training session Sept. 19, 20 and 21 at Belo Mansion.

The seminar is for lawyers and other professionals involved in dispute resolution.

“The collaborative dispute resolution process (referred to as collaborative law) is a voluntary, nonadversarial form of alternate dispute resolution” that enables parties to settle disputes privately and outside the courthouse, explained Larry Maxwell, a practitioner of collaborative law who’s chairman of…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

London’s tabloids are having a field day with allegations that Paul McCartney is a drug-taking, violent drunk, allegations that have come out largely because Britain does not have a no-fault divorce system.

Australia does, and now there are moves to make it even less confrontational.

Under a scheme called “collaborative law", a lawyer first signs a contract with the client, promising to settle the divorce without going to court.

Crucially, if those talks fail and the divorce proceeds to court, the clients have to sack their lawyers. They’re barred from using those same solicitors in a court setting.

Supporters say it forces all parties to come up with creative solutions, saving money and time.

Sabra Lane reports.

SABRA LANE: Mention divorce and most people think of the nasty, vindictive battles that end up in court.

But under collaborative law, lawyers sign a contract at the start of the dispute, promising their clients to settle the matter without going to court.

Importantly, it’s also agreed from the outset that should discussions break down and the divorce proceeds to court, the clients must sack their collaborative solicitors, and hire new lawyers from competing firms.

JOHN POLLARD: That’s the secret of the success of collaborative law. From the lawyers’ point of view, they know that if they can’t come up with a solution that’s going to satisfy the needs of each of the parties, then they’re going to be sacked. And from the clients’ point of view, they know that they’ve got to start all over again, so that that puts a lot more pressure onto the lawyers and onto the clients to be more reasonable about working out a settlement.

SABRA LANE: That’s John Pollard, a special counsel at Watts McCray, and the President of Collaborative Professionals NSW.

While this form of dispute resolution is new to Australia, it’s widely practised in the US, Canada and the UK.

In the Canadian town of Medicine Hat, it’s so effective and popular that divorce cases rarely make it to the courtroom.

More : abc.net.au

(CBS) A new way of settling divorces is providing couples with a way to end their marriages while avoiding nasty, costly courtroom battles, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart.

In the process, called “collaborative law,” each partner hires a lawyer, and all four parties — the lawyers and the spouses — sign a “participation agreement.”

In it, everyone agrees to work toward a settlement, and not to go to court. And if discussions do break down, both lawyers must withdraw from the case and may not file any motions in court whatsoever.

It’s quicker, cleaner, and cheaper: A divorce handled in court costs a minimum of $15,000 to $20,000, while a collaborative law divorce averages $2,000 to $3,000.

Minnesota attorney Stuart Webb dreamed up the idea. It’s the risk of having to start all over with new lawyers, he says, that usually convinces about 95 percent of all couples to settle.

“I remind them of it all the time, you know, as we go along,” Webb says. “‘Know if this is going in the direction it’s heading, it’s going to be bye-bye time.’”

Mike and Sherry Rasmussen settled their divorce via collaborative law. There was no love lost during the proceedings, but there also was no threats or posturing — just a split down the middle of everything they own.

Attorneys Ron Ousky and Maury Beaulier like the process so much they’ve collaborated on a half a dozen divorces.

“You’re an advocate and you’re still representing your client’s interests, but you’re doing so with reasoned arguments and eliminating some of the tone,” said Beaulier.

“Once you’ve launched the missiles in your first court proceeding you’ve drawn adversarial lines and people become polarized rather than coming together,” he said.

Neither lawyer misses the emotional turmoil that acrimonious divorce proceedings can bring.

“I’ve seen suicides. I’ve seen death threats. I’ve seen people in so much pain,” said Ousky. “In 18 years I’ve seen three suicides.

As Mike and Sherry ended their marriage, there was no shouting. The lawyers thanked the pair for doing “what’s fair and civil” and wished each good luck in their new, separate life.

Source : cbsnews.com

* Divorce, child custody and dispute resolution among topics

TODAY’S LAW SCHOOL

Albuquerque attorneys Kimberly A. Schavey and Gretchen M. Walther will speak about family-law issues such as divorce, child custody and dispute resolution at Today’s Law School next week.

Today’s Law School…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

You don’t have to be a multi-millionaire celebrity to lose out in a marital split. Richard Evans explains how couples can make sure their assets end up shared between them – not the lawyers

The recent spate of high-profile divorce cases has focused attention on the role of the courts in deciding who gets what. What is often forgotten, however, is that many couples come to an agreement between themselves, or with the help of professionals, on money matters.

Before you can start to negotiate a financial settlement with your soon-to-be ex-husband or wife, you need to list all your assets and liabilities.

“In English law there is no ‘community of ownership’, which means that all assets, whether bought before or after marriage, belong to one or other spouse unless specifically in joint names, such as the house,” says Andrew Greensmith, a family solicitor and deputy district judge handling divorce cases.

The pot of assets that can potentially be divided between you consists of everything that you own, everything that your partner owns and anything that you own jointly; it also includes any pensions. Subtract from that total all loans, mortgages etc, whether in your name, your spouse’s name or in both, and you have the family “balance sheet".

Before you start negotiating how to apportion the assets, think about what you, and any children, will need. Divorce settlements take account of all children who are part of the family, including stepchildren and adopted children, but not foster children. Remember that a settlement can include sharing out assets (including pensions) or the payment of maintenance for both spouse and children, or a mixture.

A settlement that involves just a lump sum is called a “clean break". Maintenance is subject to future review whereas lump sums are not; it will also stop if the payer dies, while spousal maintenance ends if the recipient remarries. Child maintenance is subject to review by the Child Support Agency after 14 months.

“It’s worth drawing up a budget, including your outgoings now and in the future, and thinking about how you will manage when you retire. It’s much better to do this before you reach an agreement with your partner on how to split your money, but very few people do,” says Gill Cardy of Professional Partnerships, a London-based firm of independent financial advisers. “An IFA can help you do this. People often have current expenditure under control but need help to assess their future needs.”

More : telegraph.co.uk

DIVORCE will never be a pleasant process, but when you factor in the splitting of multimillion-dollar estates, fortunes and celebrity status, it can be ugly.

The vicious ongoing legal battle between Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills has spilt into London’s High Court and is expected to drag out until the end of the year.

After a string of allegations and counter-allegations, and both sides using the press to gain public ascendancy, one can only imagine the effects this will have on their three-year-old daughter Beatrice.

Closer to home, tyre magnate Bob Jane is also embroiled in a bitter legal battle with his wife of 20 years, further intensified by intervention orders and the threat of criminal charges.

Most Australians, however, are not interested in expensive, drawn-out legal battles that leave families broken and often broke.

As nearly one in three marriages in Australia now ends in divorce, and de facto relationships face an even bleaker termination rate, people are increasingly looking towards more dignified ways of dealing with family breakdowns and divorce settlements.

More : news.com.au

The Solicitors Family Law Association is now known as ‘Resolution’. And with its push for collaborative law, the organisation is changing more than just its name. By Jon Robins

So it is goodbye to the dusty old ‘Solicitors Family Law Association’ (SFLA) and hello to the trendy new ‘Resolution’. Why did the 5,000-strong lawyers’ group, founded in 1982, opt for a single-word name more befitting an eighties jazz-fusion band than one of the most influential voices in family law? Apparently, it is one thing to have the ear of Whitehall policymakers and quite another to be recognised by ordinary folk on the street. The name change is also a response to a new approach to family law that is coming at us all the way from the US.

The SFLA’s lack of market penetration in awareness terms became obvious last year when it undertook its own market research. “We realised that nobody knew who we were,” comments Kim Beatson, Resolution chair and a partner at London firm Anthony Gold Solicitors. “We then looked at our ethos and decided to work around names that would represent that.”

The lawyers considered a list of options, from the conservative (apparently just dropping the word ‘solicitors’) through to the “more extreme”. “And ‘Resolution’ was quite extreme, but it made sense because the definition was wide,” says Beatson. “On the one hand it means a decision reached by a legal body through the courts, but on the other it has this conciliatory meaning: resolving a problem or finding a solution.”

Despite the soul-searching and agonising over the new name, not everyone is convinced. “People haven’t got a clue who or what we are now,” lamented one Resolution member recently. “But then, maybe that’s a good thing – people tend to run a mile when they find out you’re a solicitor.”

The advent of Resolution also ties in neatly with the arrival of a new concept in family law – namely, collaborative law – which comes all the way from the US.

So far there are only around 100 family lawyers that have been trained in this radically new approach by Resolution. Next month Pauline Tesler, the US attorney who is one of the architects of the collaborative law concept, will fly in to the UK to train another batch of 250 lawyers. “This is a new concept within family law,” claims Roger Bamber, Resolution member and a family law specialist at Mills & Reeve. “It’s different from the conventional approach because you specifically exclude litigation and all that that implies. The courts polarise attitudes quickly and they force couples to accentuate their differences, and it’s the same for lawyers – if you’re preparing for court you have to concentrate on where the differences lie.” Resolution hopes to have 350 lawyers qualified to practise in this way by the end of the year.

More : thelawyer.com

The divorce wars had pretty much done in Stuart Webb. After 20 years as a family law litigator in Minneapolis, he was burned out, demoralized by the siege mentality of his job, and searching for an escape from the ugliness of divorce and the damage he saw being done to families–especially children–as bitter courtroom battles played out.

“I had to get out to save myself,” Webb says. But instead of abandoning divorce law, he decided to transform it, and in 1990 he came up with a new way for lawyers to help couples split without destroying each other and their children.

Webb called his creation “collaborative law,” and in recent years it has become one of the fastest-growing methods by which disputes are settled outside the courtroom. His formula is deceptively simple. Divorcing couples and their lawyers committed to the method sit down together to negotiate terms of the split with one overriding understanding: If talks break down, the couple will have to find new lawyers to take their dispute to court or any other venue.

The idea of a lawyer withdrawing his or her counsel if settlement talks fail is foreign to most litigators, says Ronald Ousky, a Minneapolis lawyer who has written a book with Webb about the strategy they both embrace.

“At first, it didn’t sink in even with me–is withdrawal really necessary?” Ousky said. “But that is the radical shift–it’s what puts meat on the bone.”

“When you take court out of the picture, people start to behave differently,” he said. “It’s the difference between sitting in a room and settling with a gun, or sitting in a room and settling while the guns are blocks away.” The method has been so successful it is being adapted for use in situations ranging from civil conflicts to medical malpractice claims and has spread to Europe and Australia. There are now an estimated 10,000 collaborative divorce lawyers around the world, including about 150 in Minnesota.

Webb and Ousky sat down with U.S. News this week in Washington to talk about their method. They were in town to lead collaborative-law training sessions and sign their recently published book, The Collaborative Way to Divorce: The Revolutionary Method That Results in Less Stress, Lower Costs and Happier Kids–Without Going to Court.

On how the collaborative method with lawyers trained in the process differs from straight-up mediation.

Webb: Mediation is neutral. The mediator, the person working for the client, is a neutral. In collaboration, the client has a lawyer supporting him or her in the room. Mediation decisions are often made in a vacuum, and some mediators say the hardest thing for them is when one of the parties has made a decision that isn’t a good one, and the only thing [the mediator] can do is suggest that the party check with his or her lawyer.

More : usnews.com

After 13 years of marriage, Debbie and Phil Pilgrim’s divorce was as close to pain-free as possible.

No bitter custody battle. No fights over money. No ugly courtroom scenes.

“I was expecting the worst going in, and it wasn’t that way at all,” said Debbie Pilgrim, an airline passenger service representative from Hurst. “And I truly believe it was because of the way it was handled.”

The Pilgrims are among a growing number of Texas couples who are choosing what some lawyers describe as a “kinder, gentler,” more civilized approach to ending a marriage.

A year ago this month, the state family code was amended to allow collaborative divorce as an alternative to conventional civil court procedures. Texas is the first state to codify collaborative law for divorce, a process that can save couples thousands of dollars and help them avoid a legal bloodbath.

Fort Worth lawyer Dick Price predicts collaborative law will catch on during the next decade, largely because it allows parties to resolve personal issues privately.

“There are very few people who want to get on a witness stand…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Q: My husband and I decided to separate after 14 years of marriage and two children. We are both college-educated, employed, know our finances better than anyone else, know what it will take each of us to live, and understand our children’s needs. In order to save money, we decided not to hire lawyers, whom we believe could escalate our cooperative attitude into a court fight. Instead, we have read books and some of your columns, and spent time on the Internet getting a list of items that should be included in our agreement.

We have prepared several versions of an agreement, and…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye, in her annual address on the judiciary, announced plans to create a new family law center in New York City that is intended to make divorce faster and cheaper for couples who want amicable settlements.

New York, which does not have no-fault divorce, is notorious for judicial delays that turn even the least fraught divorces into expensive, acrimonious affairs. Judge Kaye, who has long championed overhauling state divorce laws, repeated her call for no-fault divorce in her speech on Monday, but that idea has stalled in the Legislature in the past.

The planned Collaborative Family Law Center, which will serve all five boroughs, does not require legislative approval, and it will serve as a pilot project on alternative approaches to divorce when it opens in Manhattan this year.

“Too much money, too much delay, too much agony,” Judge Kaye said in her speech, describing the state’s divorce laws. “We anticipate that spouses who choose this approach will find that the financial and emotional cost of divorce is reduced for everyone involved — surely a step in the right direction,” she added.

Judge Kaye also proposed a takeover of the state probation system by the judicial branch, an idea that immediately met with skepticism from a top Senate Republican. Her proposal was drawn from the recommendations of a special judicial task force on probation, which issued a report on Monday finding that a long history of state funding cuts had left probation the stepchild of the state’s justice system.

The report said state reimbursement of county probation departments had fallen from 47 percent of their budgets two decades ago to about 18 percent today. The chief judge also called for $75 million in new annual financing of the system, phased in over the next three years.

More : nytimes.com

After 18 years of marriage, the husband wanted a divorce. The wife agreed and hired a Tampa divorce attorney.

The couple, an affluent pair in their 40s, wanted to avoid a long, vicious battle in court. Her attorney, Joseph Hood, had a suggestion:

Engage in a new legal method that stresses negotiation and compromise instead of adversity and litigation when getting a divorce.

They took him up on his offer and, a mere 30 days later, the divorce was granted by a judge.

“Lots of people getting divorced are very frustrated with the process. This gives them an option,” said Tampa attorney Nancy Harris. “Divorces do not have to be a third world war.”

The collaborative law movement promotes a simpler way to resolve issues without the lengthy and costly legal back-and-forth that often leads to a barrage of motions, depositions, restraining orders and nasty letters.

Those who are promoting the program don’t presume to be able to eliminate the sadness that often accompanies a divorce. But they say it could help reduce anxiety, speed up the process and cost much less. It’s particularly beneficial for a couple with children who must be able to get along after the divorce.

More : sptimes.com

One of the worst things to come out of the late 1980s and early 1990s was the image of the horrific divorce proceeding.

Think Donald and Ivana. Roseanne and Tom. Corbin Bernsen from “L.A. Law.” Bitter rivals, flanked by pricey lawyers, using their children as pawns while everyone’s dignity was slowly reduced to rubble.

In the year 2002, thankfully, divorces are only as contentious and expensive as you and your former partner want them to be.

Expanded services at local courthouses, do-it-yourself Web sites and an increase in pro bono work for the poor during the last decade have made divorces easier to complete without a painful, bank-account-draining court proceeding.

At San Francisco Superior Court, and other county courthouses throughout the Bay Area, staff are waiting to help guide residents through the complicated process.

“Five years ago, there was no service or very little service to a couple getting a simple divorce,” said Jon Schiller, director of San Francisco’s Family Court Services. “As long as it’s not a conflict, they can get it done in a short amount of time for a relatively low amount of money.”

For more complex cases, or cases where the parties are at odds, the court offers free mediation.

Recent census figures show that divorce is on the rise.

In 1970, there were 4 million divorced citizens in the United States. By 2000, there were more than 20 million. In San Francisco, there are more than 56,000 residents with at least one divorce. Nationwide, there were about 1 million divorces in 2000.

Most of the newer divorcees in the Bay Area have been choosing to represent themselves in court. In the past five years, Schiller said, the amount of soon- to-be-divorced citizens represented by lawyers has dropped dramatically, from about 60 percent to approximately 30 percent. Only a small percentage of cases end up being argued by lawyers in front of a judge.

More : sfgate.com

When Ken and Abbe Hitchcock decided to end their 18-year marriage, their priority was to spare their three children the nastiness and recriminations that often fly back and forth between a divorcing couple.

“We did not want to get into a standard her-side vs. my-side argument,” said Ken Hitchcock of McKinney, Texas, a vice president for an apartment development and construction company. “We did not want to be unusually cruel or draw any more pain and suffering to the situation than it already had.”

The emotionally wrenching experience associated with divorce has led some couples and their lawyers to adopt a relatively new legal model to make divorce negotiations fairer and more beneficial to couples. It’s known as “collaborative family law” or collaborative divorce.

Collaborative law is a process aimed at making divorce less acrimonious and more cooperative among the parties.

Lawyers who practice collaborative law say it’s a refreshing alternative for an American legal system that’s based on adversaries battling it out in court.

“People are much happier with their results,” said Janet Brumley, a partner at Verner & Brumley in Dallas. “It’s the sense of control that is so much better in collaborative law. Instead of lawyers and judges being in control, the control still remains very firmly with the husband and wife.”

In a collaborative divorce, a couple and their lawyers sign a contract, agreeing…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

A group of lawyers is trying to make divorce less traumatic by cutting out the legal fight, but will it end in tears, asks Stuart Wavell

When Adrian Hamilton’s marriage foundered two years ago he found that divorce could be the start of a beautiful friendship with his former wife. She lives with their four children five miles away, and the couple speak to each other several times a day.

“We just grew apart but it was extremely amicable,” Hamilton says, with a fruity rumble evocative of the historic cars he buys and sells at Hook in Hampshire. “My wife has a boyfriend she lives with. I’m good friends with both of them and I go round there for lunch or dinner. The children come and go all the time.”

Mind you, the divorce was not a “joyous” event for the 54-year-old businessman. “Far from it. It was wretched and horrible, with 18 months of nightmares. The lawyers charged like wounded buffaloes, and it cost me dear. But I have to say we were very level-headed and sensible about it.”

Hamilton was lucky. For those less fortunate he runs a website, www.wifesgone.com, dispensing information that stops short of giving advice. “I hear all sorts of hideous stories. A man rang the other day and said his wife ran off with a rock band three years ago, leaving him with three children. She had reappeared, wanting half the house. He was absolutely pulling his hair out, poor man.”

Despite the intercontinental battle for hearts and minds between Sir Paul McCartney and his wife Heather Mills, on the face of it there seems plenty of evidence for the theory that divorcees are acting in a more mature manner.

More : timesonline.co.uk

When Ken and Abbe Hitchcock decided to end their 18-year marriage, their priority was to spare their three children the nastiness and recriminations that often fly back and forth between a divorcing couple.

“We did not want to get into a standard her-side vs. my-side argument,” said Mr. Hitchcock of McKinney, a vice president for an apartment development and construction company. “We did not want to be unusually cruel or draw any more pain and suffering to the situation than it already had.”

The emotionally wrenching experience associated with divorce has led some couples and their lawyers to adopt a relatively new legal model to make divorce negotiations fairer and more beneficial to couples. It’s known as “collaborative family law” or collaborative divorce.

Collaborative law is a process aimed at making divorce less acrimonious and more cooperative among the parties.

Lawyers who practice collaborative law say it’s a refreshing alternative for an American legal system that’s based on adversaries battling it out in court.

“People are much happier with their results,” said Janet Brumley, a partner at Verner & Brumley in Dallas. “It’s the sense of control that is so much better in collaborative law.

Instead of lawyers and judges being in control, the control still remains very firmly with the husband and wife.”

In a collaborative divorce, a couple and their lawyers sign a contract, agreeing to dissolve the marriage and settle all issues without…

Source : accessmylibrary.com

Divorces are traumatic at the best of times and can destroy whatever might be left of failing relationships, turn children against parents, devour much-needed cash and drag on for years. Breaking up is hard to do, but does it have to be hell?

A growing number of divorce lawyers claim ‘collaborative law’ is a revolutionary way of splitting up that reduces heartache and saves money. A couple of weeks ago, Sue, a 39-year-old mother of three, received an early Christmas present: an envelope containing a decree absolute. It marked the official end of her 14-year marriage to John.

Sue and John first went to see their lawyers in March last year, and have had six round-the-table ‘collaborative’ meetings in which their complicated affairs were sorted out. ‘I can’t say that it has been easy,’ says Sue. ‘In fact, the meetings have been totally draining. At the end of each one I’ve been in floods of tears. John has been there to give me a hug.’

In the course of those meetings, the former couple have resolved childcare arrangements for their three children (aged seven, 10 and 11), and the sale of their £600,000 house. ‘We’ve gone through a process that was always going to be painful, and we’ve now come out the other side with dignity intact and the children’s best interests preserved,’ says John, a 41-year-old businessman.

This time last year, the couple had just endured a miserable Christmas living under one roof with their relationship in tatters. One year later, they both believe that the break-up has in some ways brought them closer together. ‘Yes, John pisses me off still and I imagine I do him, but we’ve agreed a way forward together for the sake of the children,’ Sue says. ‘That’s real progress.’

If this all sounds commendably mature on the part of Sue and John, it’s the exception. In fact, the couple are divorce guinea pigs. In the coming months, the government is expected to give the approach its approval by launching a pilot scheme that gives public funds to couples who are eligible for legal aid.

Collaborative law is a US import. The idea is simple: you and your solicitor sit around a table with your partner and his or her solicitor (known in the jargon as ‘a four-way meeting’), to sort out childcare and other issues without the involvement of the courts. You have to agree from the start that you aren’t going to drag each other through the courts unless negotiations break down - and then you’ll have to instruct new lawyers.

More : guardian.co.uk

Wisconsin, USA - 02 February, 2002 (PRN):The Collaborative Family Law Council of Wisconsin is pleased to announce that it is hosting a multi-disciplinary Collaborative Divorce training seminar March 8-9, 2002 at the Hilton-Milwaukee City Center, 509 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53203. Trainers for this seminar include Attorney Stuart Webb, the founder of collaborative law, Attorney Pauline Tesler, author of the American Bar Association book on Collaborative divorce, and psychologists and financial experts who rank among the foremost experts on collaborative divorce in the country. More information on the seminar can be found on the Council’s website at www.collabdivorce.com.

Collaborative divorce is a multi-disciplinary model for resolving divorce and separation issues in a humane and cost-effective fashion. Collaborative law was introduced in Wisconsin in June, 2000. Since then, the Collaborative Family Law Council of Wisconsin, Inc. (CFLCW) has grown to 107 members including attorneys, mental health professionals and financial specialists. Collaborative divorce cases have been filed and resolved in many counties in Wisconsin since the inception of CFLCW.

In a collaborative divorce, the husband and wife and their attorneys sign a court approved agreement committing not to take their case to court. Professionals who deal with family issues and families themselves have found collaborative law to be healthier for all family members involved, both during and after the divorce, than the traditional adversarial model. The process focuses on finding solutions that meet the needs of all family members, including the children. Collaborative family law affords the parties more involvement and control and provides a process for separation and divorce that protects the dignity, integrity and long term best interests of all family members.

Source : pressreleasenetwork.com

All divorces involve decisions and choices such as which financial/legal and/or medical professionals to use and how to utilise their help. These decisions can powerfully affect whether a divorce moves forward smoothly or not. Some couples resolve all their divorce issues without any professional assistance whatsoever. More frequently, some couples engage in drawn out courtroom battles, which drains the family’s emotional and financial resources, are destructive to relationships and can take considerable time to complete. Most people find that their needs fall between these two extremes.

These decisions can powerfully affect whether a divorce moves forward smoothly or not….

Source : mondaq.com

When Rick McCartney and his wife decided to end their 10-year marriage, neither wanted a bitter, drawn-out court battle.

So they opted for a collaborative divorce.

Though that may sound like an oxymoron, the relatively new approach is growing more popular in El Paso County.

It’s a less combative method in which the lawyers involved see their role as problem solvers — not hired guns — for the spouses they represent. The goal is to settle issues such as child support, parenting time, alimony and division of property without court intervention.

With the collaborative approach, spouses and their specially trained lawyers agree in writing that the lawyers’ sole purpose is to help negotiate an agreement that meets the needs of both parties.

All participants in the collaborative process promise open, honest exchanges of information. They promise not to stonewall, hide documents or take advantage of miscalculations or mistakes of the other side.

The emphasis on cooperation instead of confrontation is more productive, 36-year-old Rick McCartney said. Because the lawyers can’t go to court, they’re motivated to settle, he said.

“It was a good, clean approach,” McCartney said. “I just wanted to get the deal done, and I saw this as incentive to get it done.”

The first collaborative divorce case completed in El Paso County was in 2001, and now more than 100 cases have been completed in the county, said Lisa Dailey, Rick McCartney’s lawyer and chairwoman of the Pikes Peak Collaborative Law Association. More than 4,000 couples file for divorce each year in El Paso County.

“Collaborative law allows people to retain their dignity, to retain their selfrespect and to move forward to create separate households,” said Dailey, who has completed more than 50 collaborative cases.

More : 2.gazette.com

We read with interest the May 11 article on “Divorce can create money woes for both spouses.” The legal profession has been taking steps to rectify the high cost of family law litigation, as well as the emotional and generalized financial impact associated with dissolution of marriage.

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Source : accessmylibrary.com

The couple wanted the split to be as amicable and quick as possible, but their intertwined lives - which include two young children - had made it difficult.

They soon settled on joint custody of the kids, but their financial discussions were more contentious. That’s when the couple decided to try a new form of divorce, using “collaborative law.”

It essentially says that both parties, with the help of lawyers, psychiatrists, and accountants, agree to work toward the best solution for all involved. And because they never step foot in court, proponents of the concept say it reduces the emotional costs on everyone.

“Divorce is not a pleasant situation to begin with,” says Joe, a Houston lawyer who preferred to use his first name only. “But collaborative law made the process as smooth as it could have been.”

Now a new study in Texas shows that the process is saving time and money as well. Instead of a typical 18-month, $14,000 process through litigation, a collaborative divorce takes an average of 18 weeks and $9,000 to complete, according to recently released data by the Collaborative Law Institute of Texas.

Collaborative divorce is part of