Welcome to the Home Page for Collaborative Professionals of Washington (CPW), a non-profit association of independent attorneys and allied mental health, financial, and counseling professionals.

CPW is dedicated to the promotion of high standards in the practice of Collaborative Practice. Focusing primarily in the area of Family Law, Washington’s Collaborative Professionals are seeking to change the adversarial approach to divorce.

Collaborative Professionals of Washington encourages the use of the Collaborative Process for those seeking resolution to their legal issues. While Collaborative Practice can be used in a wide variety of areas such as probate and employment law, it is most often used in divorce and family law issues.

Divorce does not need to result in anger and hurt. With Collaborative Practice, is possible to divorce and have both parties feel they have won. Divorce is rarely totally without pain. However, divorce can hurt less.

COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE – THE BETTER WAY TO SOLVE YOUR LEGAL DISPUTES

Finding a solution to your dispute does not have to be full of stress and pain for you and your family. While newer than mediation, thousands of people have already enjoyed the innovative and creative process known as “Collaborative Law” or as it is more commonly referred to as today, “Collaborative Practice.” What one Minnesota attorney started in 1990 has spread throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. The reason? Collaborative Practice just makes sense. It is a smart and humane way to solve problems.

To view a 5 minute informational video on collaborative law, go to: http://www.yoursocialworker.com/videos/CFL-direnfeld.wmv

The premise of the old adversial litiagation model still followed by many attorneys often blocks people from coming to a reasoned and equitable solution. One that both parties feel is fair and equitable to each other.

Collaborative Practice is fundamentally a new model and set of rules about how to solve legal disputes. Instead of racing to court, Collaborative participants agree not to go to court. Instead of spending thousands of dollars answering nearly irrelevant questions, Collaborative participants agree to provide each other with all relevant information. Instead of focusing on what is wrong with the other person, Collaborative attorneys and participants work together as a team to resolve their differences.

In traditional litigation, each side often hires expensive experts who come up with opposite opinions. In the Collaborative approach, all experts work for both participants.

You will also have available to you a full spectrum of collaboratively trained specialists to help you through the process, including divorce coaches, facilitators, child specialists, and financial specialists. One or more of these specialists might be part of your collaborative process from the begining, or might be brought into the process when the parties decide to utilize the expert skills and counsel of certain specialists. Either way, this team approach is designed to provide you the tools to properly address the specific issues, concerns, and emotions that you may have during the collaborative process. The end goal is to not only get the job done, but to have you in as good a place as is possible, both mentally and emotionally, about the process and final agreement.

Traditionally, the court and attorneys determine when progress occurs. In Collaborative Practice, you control the pace. Instead of having your court file open to anyone with access to the internet, most if not all of your personal information is kept private in Collaborative Practice.

Too often traditional litigation rewards bad behavior and often brings out the worst in people. We’ve all seen how the traditional court system can be used as a weapon to attack. When people are in high conflict, their natural instinct is to fight back or to flee; in either case the resulting behavior is probably not something anyone is proud of. In Collaborative Practice, your collaborative attorneys and other professionals structure the process to promote healthy, non-threatening, communication. In this setting, people can call upon their “higher selves” and more easily recognize what is really just. When the threat of hurting each other is eliminated, people can let down their guards, effectively listen and discover wonderfully creative solutions.

Collaborative Practice can unblock the path to solutions which would not be available if you let the Courts decide your case.

The attorneys on this web site have all received special training on how to conduct Collaborative Practice. All of the attorneys on this web site are members of Collaborative Professionals of Washington(“CPW”). Most of the members on this site are also members of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and have met the stringent standards involving additional training in collaborative practice. See CollaborativePractice.com to view the IACP website.