Randy J. Schaal also has experience in matters of custody and child support.

The process of collaborative law gives clients the option of going through the process of separation or divorce negotiating custody and support agreements for children and negotiating domestic partnership or pre-nuptial agreements in a cooperative and respectful way. The key element of collaborative law is that the negotiations take place in four way meetings where both parties and their attorneys are present. All four sign a participation agreement which commits everyone to working together in good faith, to reach a durable, acceptable agreement. Clients are encouraged to consider their short and long term goals. The latter often includes their wish to co-parent successfully in their children’s lives together. In a traditional law model, these are not considered to be legal issues, but they are very important to our clients. All parties agree to full and complete disclosure and we use neutral, jointly retained experts as needed.

The hallmark of the process is commitment to work towards a negotiated settlement rather than resort to litigation. Each party retains the right to withdraw from the collaborative law process and litigate. If they do so, both parties attorneys are disqualified and the parties proceed to litigation with new attorneys. This feature ensures a cooperative, confidential, negotiating environment, where neither party uses litigation as a threat and the attorneys are committed to helping the clients reach an agreement. Collaborative law is not for all clients or all attorneys. However, the clients who choose this process benefit from a potentially faster and less expensive process then litigation. In addition, the chances of successful co-parenting and a civil relationship between former spouses or partners are greatly increased.

Collaborative Law focuses on all involved parties reaching a mutually acceptable resolution of the issues. The process results in valuable benefits for the client, former spouses and their children, friends, and extended families.

When you choose lawyers to help you through a separation or divorce we focus on reaching a mutually acceptable resolution of all of the issues. The collaborative process creates a cooperative environment where communication opens, where both spouses can envision the results, can obtain the best results for their families. If you are parents, we focus on parenting philosophies and the kind of young adults you would like your children to grow up to be. With a positive restructuring of your family mind, the next step taken is to gather all the information both spouses to make good and informed decisions. The collaborative professionals provide a setting where you can work with one another to create the best possible life for your children and yourselves. The collaborative process builds what feels like a team advocating for a positive future instead of two opposing sides arming for an adversarial battle. Your lawyer supports you and your spouse’s lawyer supports your spouse.

If an expert opinion is needed, coach, child’s specialist or financial specialist would help, you and your spouse can jointly hire one independent professional, shortening the time to have information necessary to reach a decision and reducing the overall expense.

Once both of you have all the information you need to make sound and reasonable decisions, the collaborative attorneys work with you to shape the agreements together. If the decisions have to do with parenting issues, working together reduces the parental conflict the adversarial system can generate; and this can help protect children from having their loyalties divided.

In the collaborative process you can schedule meetings without waiting for court dates. You generally spend less time, and as a result less money, to reach closure.

The family issues stay within the collaborative setting giving everyone more privacy, greater confidentiality and less stress during an already stressful time.

Because both of you are represented by attorneys the separation agreement and judgment roll documents can be prepared by the same attorneys involved in the settlement process.

All negotiations take place in four way conferences between the parties and their attorneys. Each client has built in legal advice and advocacy during negotiations and each attorney is committed to guiding the clients toward reasonable resolutions. The attorneys cannot threaten to go to court. Settlement is the only agenda and all involved rely upon an atmosphere of cooperation and professionalism.