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Collaborative Lawyers’ Duties To Screen The Appropriateness Of Collaborative Law And Obtain Clients’ Informed Consent To Use Collaborative Law, John Lande, Forrest S. Mosten

John Lande

Collaborative Law (CL) is an innovative dispute resolution process that offers significant benefits but also poses significant non-obvious risks. In CL, the lawyers and clients sign a “participation agreement” promising to use an interest-based approach to negotiation and fully disclose all relevant information. A key element of CL is the “disqualification agreement,” which provides that both CL lawyers would be disqualified from representing the clients if the case is litigated. CL is designed to encourage parties to stay in the process which can be good, though sometimes parties feel stuck there, having invested thousands of dollars and at risk of …