Your Relationship With Your Massachusetts Collaborative Divorce Attorney is a Unique One
Collaborative divorce is a specialized, contract-based process that couples can use to end their marriage in a cooperative, low-conflict, and structured manner. Your collaborative divorce attorney plays a unique role. He or she cannot represent you in a divorce case should the collaborative law process break down without an agreement. Here, our Peabody collaborative divorce lawyer explains why your relationship with this type of attorney is a unique one in Massachusetts.
Starting Point: Your Attorney Represents You, Not the Collaborative Team
First and foremost, it is important to emphasize that your collaborative divorce attorney is your legal representation just the same as any other lawyer. Collaborative divorce is cooperative, but your attorney still represents your individual interests. Your spouse normally has separate collaborative counsel. The lawyers may work together to identify settlement options, obtain financial information, and resolve disagreements without adversarial litigation, but they do not become neutral representatives of the couple.
Know the Guidelines: Massachusetts Rule of Professional Conduct 1.2 provides that the client retains ultimate authority over whether to accept a settlement. Your collaborative attorney can recommend compromise, explain litigation risks, and advise you about Massachusetts law, but you decide whether a proposed separation agreement adequately protects your interests.
The Participation Agreement Limits the Scope of Representation
The defining feature of collaborative representation is the participation agreement. It is this feature that makes your relationship with your collaborative divorce attorney truly unique. Notably, Massachusetts has not adopted the Uniform Collaborative Law Act or any separate statutory collaborative-law framework. The process therefore depends heavily on contractual commitments between the participants, together with the ordinary rules governing attorney conduct.
A collaborative representation agreement ordinarily limits the lawyer’s role to negotiating and completing the divorce through the collaborative process. Massachusetts Rule 1.2(c) expressly permits an attorney and client to limit the scope of representation when the limitation is reasonable and the client gives informed consent. The lawyer nevertheless remains subject to the duty to provide competent representation.
Your Lawyer Must Withdraw if the Collaborative Process Fails
The disqualification provision gives collaborative divorce much of its distinctive structure. Under a typical collaborative participation agreement, both spouses and their attorneys agree that the collaborative lawyers will not litigate the divorce if negotiations terminate without a settlement. If one spouse ends the process and chooses litigation, each spouse must retain litigation counsel. That requirement creates an important incentive to solve difficult issues through negotiation. It also creates a meaningful consequence for terminating the process. Still, the key point is that if you do opt to withdraw from the process, which is your right, you will need to find a new divorce lawyer.
Contact Our Peabody Collaborative Divorce Lawyer Today
At Reade Law Firm, PC, our Peabody collaborative divorce attorney has the knowledge and experience that clients can trust. If you have any questions about collaborative divorce, we can help.
Call us now or contact us online to arrange a completely confidential case review. With an office in Peabody, we handle collaborative divorce throughout the region in the Commonwealth.
Source:
mass.gov/supreme-judicial-court-rules/rules-of-professional-conduct-rule-12-scope-of-representation-and-allocation-of-authority-between-client-and-lawyer