| The client in the Collaborative Law process has the opportunity to select his or her own attorney. The client should interview more than one attorney and choose the one in whom he or she has the most confidence. Ask the prospective attorney how long the attorney has practiced family law and collaborative law, the type of training received, whether or not the attorney has worked collaboratively with the other spouse’s attorney, and whether the collaborative cases the attorney has handled in the past have had successful outcomes.
 The client is expected to behave in a respectful manner during the process, to participate positively in the joint sessions by focusing his or her energy on generating workable solutions rather than wasting energy by finger-pointing and blaming the other spouse.
It is the role of the collaborative attorney to work with his or her own client to make sure that the process stays positive and productive. Even if one side or the other lacks negotiating skills or financial understanding, the playing field is leveled by the direct participation of the skilled collaborative law attorneys.
The collaborative attorneys must guide the process to settlement or withdraw from further participation in the event the case becomes contested. The likelihood of this eventually is minimized by the fact that all parties must be committed to the Collaborative Law process and make good faith efforts toward reaching a fair and comprehensive resolution without court intervention.
In the Collaborative Law process, the parties and the attorneys are prohibited from taking advantage of the miscalculations or mistakes of the other. Instead, these errors are identified and corrected for the mutual benefit of each party in order to avoid misleading and potentially penalizing the errant party.
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