1. The process allows the parties to maintain a more healthy relationship during, and after the case is resolved outside of the adversarial proceeding. Privacy is preserved in the collaborative law process.
   
2. The negotiations can occur prior to the filing of any pleadings with the Court, allowing the parties to focus on the issues while avoiding allegations about the other.
   
3. The parties have complete control over the manner and timetable in which the agreement is reached. Settlements to which both parties agree are more sustainable over long periods of time and invite more consistent compliance, then do court ordered mandates.
   
4. Collaborative law is different from mediation in that the parties have an attorney involved in the process who serves as their advocate. In mediation, the mediator simply serves as a facilitator who does not seek to advance or protect either party's interests.
   
5. If a client values working toward a peaceful amicable solution over winning at all costs, the client's values will be honored in theCollaborative law process.
   
6. The requirement that all lawyers be disqualified in the event of a breakdown guarantees that all participating counsel will be totally and exclusively motivated to make the process succeed. Thus, all participants are equally and fully invested in finding a solution.
   
7. Many people find that the costs involved in the Collaborative process to be less than that in litigation.
   
8. In cases where there are tax concerns or other issues of financial propriety in the parties' finances that cannot be presented in Court, Collaborative law presents a more attractive forum for the case to be resolved.
   
9. Everyone has an economic incentive to work toward settlement. The parties due to the high costs of litigation and the lawyers because they would be forced to withdraw if settlement cannot be reached.
   
10. If the parties have children, the direct communication in collaborative law process helps the parties develop and preserve a cooperative relationship which will benefit the children as the parties go about the task of co-parenting during the process of divorce.
    
11. Collaborative law encourages creative solutions to meet the client's needs which
    may differ from how the Court would apply the law to facts of the case.

1. As with the other alternatives to litigation, the financial disclosures made by a party will not be subject to the same standard for falsity or omissions but any fraudulent omission or statement is subject to further accountability.
   
2. Discovery can be obtained from third parties by agreement but cannot be compelled by the Court.
   
3. Client's lose the enforcement right for orders in the litigation process.
   
4. The requirement that the lawyers withdraw from representation in the event of a breakdown will mean that if the process is unsuccessful the parties must retain new counsel. However, both parties can agree to have unresolved issues in their case arbitrated during the Collaborative law process.
   
5. The Collaborative law process, like mediation, may not be appropriate where there is a history or pattern of family violence.

Providing clients and their lawyers with a new, formal and strictly non-adversarial approach to resolving legal disputes.