Unfortunately, with around 40% of UK marriages ending in divorce, relationship breakdown is a common occurrence. It’s a time when you need to make important and long-lasting decisions about your future that will affect both you, your children and others around you. It’s also a time when you are likely to be experiencing considerable emotional turmoil.

At Wards, our family lawyers are experienced in providing practical and supportive advice, helping you identify and prioritise the issues and offering solutions. In doing so, we can remove a significant part of the uncertainty and stress from the process.

One of our lawyers specialises in collaborative family practice, which is a new way for divorcing or separating couples to work together as a team with trained professionals, to resolve disputes respectfully, without going to court.

Each client has the support, protection and guidance of his or her own lawyer. Together, the lawyers and clients form the collaborative component of Collaborative Practice. The lawyers agree that they are there to help the clients through the collaborative process, they are not there to take the case to court and are prevented from doing so.

The main elements of Collaborative Practice are set out in a contract called a Participation Agreement, which both the lawyers and the clients sign.

How collaborative practice works

Collaborative practice is all about working as a team:

Who should I contact?
 
Philip Simon is a Partner with many years' experience of family breakdown issues. He is trained in collaborative family practice methods.

Contact Philip by E-mail or telephone him on 0117 943 4800.