วีดีโอ

It's not and never has been "Collaborative Law". Collaborative Law is the term adopted by lawyers in England and Wales for a process that has very little to do with the law and a great deal to do with improving communication between disputants. The term which should be used is collaborative practice. This emphasises the importance of the first word, whereas Collaborative Law gives equal prominence to a word which emphasises the role of lawyers. True collaborative practice involves teams of mixed professionals such as a family coach, financial planner and mediator, with lawyers having a more back-seat role. That has not taken off in England and Wales over the last 20 years is surely down to it's reliance on the two-lawyer model. To hear it that it is to be included in the new meaning of NCDR feels like a joke. It completely overlooks the fact that lawyers are already the gatekeepers to many of the disputes (particularly financial) that end up in court. That the lawyers and their clients aren't collaborating but have chosen the court route should suggest that litigants are not going to be easily encouraged to find lawyers who would be willing to collaborate. Non Court Dispute Resolution. The last two words show that the cultural change we need is not going to happen any time soon. Let's use the term Non Court Problem Solving instead - get people into mediation as a first step so that their problems are less likely to become disputes.