Welcome to The Mediation Group of Tennessee, LLC
Collaborative Family Practice  

We arecommitted to helping families solve their problems and communicate more effectively through the use of civil or family mediation, arbitration and collaborative practice. 

Collaborative family practice is a new way to offer a path toward divorce that avoids the painful and expensive process of litigation.  In this process, the parties become part of a team that will help in reaching a satisfactory solution that protects the health and well-being of their family. The team includes:

• An attorney for each spouse, a coach, who help keep the process constructive and civil.
• A financial consultant to provide financial information to both spouses.
• 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 their family. In the agreement both parties agree to maintain open communication, to be transparent with all information and to share all the necessary details.  In the agreement, parties are committing to make a good faith effort to find a sharedsolution that is best for them and their family.       

How does collaborative practice differ from mediation between parties?

Parties 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 the parties 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 the parties  to court. During the meetings, the parties gather information about their children, assets and debts  and determine how everything is divided and how the children are parented. 

In collaborative practice, each party has an attorney and sometimes each party 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.  The parties and their 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 rare occasions when the parties cannot reach an agreement through these collaborative practice sessions, the contract prescribes that the parties must obtain new counsel before proceeding to bring the case to court. The other professionals used in the collaborative process will not be available to parties during the litigation process.  On the other hand, the parties' contract may specify another method to resolve the dispute. 

What are the benefits of collaborative practice?

• The parties retain control of the process.
• Everyone takes responsibility to shape the settlement.
• The parties have the support of an attorney, who is their advocate throughout the negotiation process.
• The parties have the support of a coach who helps with the emotional aspects of the divorce and helps 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? 

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

If one party opts for collaborative law then their 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? 
Informative Websites:  www.collaborativepractice.com and www.mtcollab.net. 

Click on an interview on the Today Show on Collaborative Divorce.