Collaborative Family Law & Mediation Sites

Mediate.com's Collaborative Law Section Edited by Chip Rose
Mediate.com is, obviously, a website devoted to mediation issues. But it has a Collaborative Law section edited by Chip Rose, one of the leaders in this field. The section contains various articles and information of value. It doesn't have a Q&A section, because it's a site devoted to people who already know what this is about. For Q&A's, see below. I also recommend the Family Section for thoughtful articles about mediating resolutions to family law disputes.

Collaborative Lawyering EPIIgram
This is an article from the Canadian Bar Association's Emerging Professional Issues Initiative Newsletter which outlines the origins and concepts of the Collaborative Family Law process. The article has hyperlinks to a variety of other useful information and discusses the state of this emerging field as at 2001.

The Collaborative Family Law Association of Ontario - Toronto Group
Not surprisingly, this is the website of the Toronto group of Collaborative Family Law practitioners setting out the principles of this approach to resolving family law issues as well as a list of it's members along with an indication of who has taken which training courses.

Collaborative Family Lawyers of Canada
A site with general collaborative family law information available as well as a listing of some of the lawyers in Alberta and Saskatchewan who carry on this practice.

Collaborative Divorce
Collaborative Divorce is a bit different from Collaborative Family Law in that it involves the participation of a team of professionals as part of the process. While this isn't the predominant model in Canada, the site is well worth visiting and the articles found there help show our clients that there's a "different" way to resolving their divorce dispute.

Collaborative Divorce B.C.
This is the site for the Collaborative Divorce approach as practiced in British Columbia. It has articles and a great collection of links to sites dealing with collaborative family law.

Collaborative Divorce and Separation
Morrie Sacks of Vancouver has put together a great Collaborative Family Law site divided into 3 sections: Introductory Information, The Collaborative Process, and The Collaborative Philosophy. While lots of sites deal with all 3 of these, I particularly recommend going through The Collaborative Philosophy section first as it really sets the scene and is a terrific description of what Collaborative Family Law is all about. As Morrie says, he's been practicing family law for over 15 years and has come to realize that just reaching a "settlement" isn't enough. This is a way for the parties to reach a more satisfactory "resolution".

Collaborative Family Lawyers Institute
This is a Miami, Florida, group of collaborative family lawyers, whose home page has a link to About Us which sets out a good set of Common Questions, with answers, about the collaborative family law process .

The Collaborative Law Network
This is the website of the Ottawa based group of collaborative family law lawyers. Check out their FAQs for another group's views about this process.

International Academy of Collaborative Professionals Resources - Books
This site is by an organization sponsoring Collaborative Divorce, which is a team-based approach to collaborative law. This is a different approach but based upon the same collaborative principles. The site has a good Resources section with articles, books, and more.

The British Columbia Dispute Resolution Office Collaborative Law Bulletin
The British Columbia Dispute Resolution Office issues a variety of Bulletins and information about aspects of mediation and has this quite informative discussion.

Norman Pickell
Norman Pickell is a sole paractioner in Goderich, Ontario with a broadbased practice. He's big on mediation and has a wonderful selection of Family Law Mediation sites with a comment about each one. You'll need to click onto Mediator/Arbitrator in the left-hand frame and then go to the bottom of either the Arbitration Index or Mediation Index. He's put together a great selection of sites if you want to find out more about this subject. Separate from this section are several other really worthwhile areas to browse through. I'm not listing other Mediation sites here because you can get pretty much what you want by gong to Norman's site.