An idea began shaping in Stu Webb’s family law office in Minnesota in 1992. The novel idea was to help families through the divorce process with a new approach he decided to call collaborative law. This month, Collaborative Law Proceedings were officially accepted as a practice area in New Jersey, which is the 10th state in the country so far to enact a statute codifying collaborative law proceedings.
You may find it surprising, but North Carolina was in the vanguard of this movement toward a saner and healthier approach to divorce trauma, and in 2003, became the second state in the country to enact collaborative law legislation. At that time, those of us practicing collaborative law were still on the fringe, something of an oddity in the family-law world of scorched-earth litigation.
Today, family law attorneys who use collaborative law proceedings instead of traditional court proceedings have entered the mainstream. In nearly every state now, legislatures are considering some form of collaborative law bill. It’s only a matter of time before all the states have laws providing for collaborative law proceedings.
North Carolina families have a choice between two legal options for divorce. At Springfield Collaborative Divorce we would like to help you understand your options so you can be sure to choose the one right for you.
