Welcome to The Mediation Group of Tennessee,

Collaborative Family Practice  

The Mediation Group of Tennessee, LLC is committed to helping you solve your problems and communicate more effectively through the use of , civil or family mediation , arbitration and collaborative practice. 

There is a new video which is very descriptive of an actual couple in a Collaborative Divorce.  Go to the website, www.collaborativepractice.com .  The video is on the right hand side of the page. 

Collaborative family practice is a new way to offer you and your spouse a path toward divorce  that avoids the painful and expensive process of litigation.  In this process, you and your spouse become part of a team that will help you reach a satisfactory solution that protects the health and well-being of your family.  The team includes a lawyer for each spouse, a coach, who helps keep the process constructive and civil and if needed a financial consultant who gives financial information to both spouses and a child specialist who gives counsel and advice about issues related to parenting.  All members of the team sign a contract which commits the parties and the professionals to negotiate a mutually acceptable agreement without having the courts decide issues for your family. In the agreement both parties  agree to maintain open communication between the  parties,  to be transparent with all information and to share all the necessary details.  In the agreement, you are committing to make a good faith effort to find a shared solution that is best for you and your family.       

How does collaborative practice differ from mediation between parties?

You  can enter mediation  at the beginning and or at the end of a divorce.   Many attorneys believe in mediation after they have gone through the entire litigation process, including filing, written questions and answers, face to face depositions, interim court hearings and back and forth negotiations between attorneys prior to a mediation. Such a mediation is often a marathon type mediation, which may last 4 – 10 hours, which results in a written agreement, which one attorney then takes to court.

The second type of mediation is one favored by The Mediation Group, where a you and your spouse  meet for a series of two hour meetings over a period of time, resulting in a Memorandum of Understanding. That Memorandum of Understanding is then sent to an attorney who finalizes it and takes one of you  to court. During the meetings, you gather  information about you children, assets and debts  and determine how everything is divided and how the children are parented. 

Below is a video about mediation, done by the Tennessee Association for Professional Mediators, which is fun an informative. 

In collaborative practice, each of you  has an attorney and sometimes each of you has a coach.  At other times, one coach will serve the team as the facilitator of the process.  Team meetings are scheduled over a period of time.   You and your attorneys gather information in a similar way to the mediation process described above. The coach may meet with either or both parties individually to help the parties contain their emotions and communicate constructively. The team helps the parties negotiate with each other on the two major issues, the first being how the debts and assets are divided and the second, how the children will be parented.  The attorneys in the collaborative law practice act differently than in either litigation or mediation.  Though each attorney is primarily the consultant of one party, both attorneys do whatever they can to help the process be constructive and to  reach a satisfying conclusion.  Sometimes this might mean that an attorney acting as the consultant to the wife might suggest ideas that are beneficial to the husband and vice versa. Similar to mediation, both parties consult with one neutral financial professional and/or appraiser or any other neutral professional that might be helpful to the process.     

On  the rare occasion  that  you  cannot come to an agreement through these collaborative practice sessions, your  contract prescribes that you  must obtain new attorneys before you  can proceed to bring your  case to court.  The other professionals used in the collaborative process will not available to you during the litigation process.  On the other hand, your contract may specify another method to resolve the dispute. 

What are the benefits of collaborative practice?

You  retain control of the process.  Everyone takes responsibility to shape the settlement.

You have the support of an attorney, who is your advocate,  throughout the negotiation process.  You have the support of a coach who helps you with the emotional aspects of the divorce and helps you better negotiate with your spouse.

Without the threat of “being taken to court” you can focus on the settlement, without fear that one person can jump ship very easily and threaten you  rather than negotiate with  you.

The focus of the negotiation is on the future, rather than on the past. If you are able to successfully negotiate a settlement with each other with the aid of the team you will have a less stressful future  particularly where children are concerned.

You are not at the mercy of another attorney who does not believe in the benefits of collaborative practice, as both attorneys will be trained in the collaborative process.

Usually, the collaborative practice is less costly, as most of the work is done right at the sessions. The information gathering is joint and transparent.  This process makes it easier to reach a final agreement, rather than waiting on the courts to schedule a hearing.  

 Generally the settlements  that come from a collaborative process are more detailed and complete than one obtained through a court hearing.  These more complete and detailed settlements are often better because they eliminate the causes for future misunderstandings.

How do I find a collaborative attorney?

In The Mediation Group of Tennessee, Marietta Shipley, Jan Walden and Ann Barker have all received training as a collaborative practice attorney. If one spouse uses one of the attorneys, call 615 292-6069.  Marietta, Jan and Ann Barker are members of the Middle Tennessee Collaborative Practice Group, www.mtcollab.net.

  If you choose collaborative law then you spouse will have to choose one of the other collaborative trained attorneys on that list or any other trained collaborative attorney.  The website also lists coaches and financial professionals.  On this  website, there is a list of attorneys who also have collaborative practice training as well as mental health coaches.  There is an asterisk by each name.  

How can I find out more information about collaborative law?

There is an excellent website,  www.collaborativepractice.com in addition to www.mtcollab.net.

This website is the website of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals. It contains a lot of information, as well as helpful videos, audio programs and stories of actual divorces, usuing the collaborative process.   All of this information can be very useful in making your decision to either have a litigated divorce, mediation just with a mediator and attorney at the end of the mediation or a collaborative practice divorce. 

Click on an interview on the Today Show on Collaborative Divorce