Collaborative Law Involvement In collaborative law, the parties are not bystanders, they are the main participants. Courts are last While the courts will always remain the last resort for resolving family law disputes, they are certainly not the best. Collaborative Family Law
Since college Lynn has dedicated herself to helping families and children in crisis. She majored in social work and criminal justice at East Stroudsburg University, in Pennsylvania, where she was born and raised. After college she worked at the Children’s Home in Easton, Pennsylvania, supervising and living with delinquent and at risk children. This led her to a career in the law.

Lynn came to Virginia in the fall of 1990 to attend the University of Richmond School of Law. Since graduation she has litigated family law cases, including, divorce, custody, support and property division. When Lynn began at Tucker Griffin Barnes in January, 1996, she concentrated her practice in family law and quickly developed a reputation in the legal community as a strong, compassionate, skilled litigator. While Lynn loved helping families through difficult times of transition, she often found the litigation process a poor way to resolve family law disputes. She thought there had to be a “better way” to reach a suitable resolution without the time, expense and emotional toll litigation takes on the parties and their children.

Lynn believes she has found that “better way”. It is Collaborative Family Law. Collaborative Family Law is a process of solving family law disputes without resorting to the court system. Each party retains his or her own specially trained collaborative lawyer to advise and assist in negotiating solutions to all issues. These negotiations take place in settlement meeting that both clients and lawyers attend. Settlement is the only agenda. The lawyers cannot go to court or threaten to go to court. If either client chooses to end the collaborative law process and resort to the courts, both attorneys are disqualified from representing either party. There is full disclosure and parties are required to deal openly and fairly with one another.

Lynn describes the advantages of the collaborative law process:

“While the courts will always remain the last resort for resolving family law disputes, they are certainly not the best. Litigation is adversarial and does not foster a healthy continuing relationship between the divorcing parties. It injects venom into an already tense situation. This further sours each party to the other, a horrible outcome when there are children involved that require continued co-parenting. Also, the court is constrained in the time it has to learn the unique aspects of each family and fashion an appropriate remedy. The judge makes a decision using only the information this is legally relevant; the court is limited in the relief it can provide. While both spouses do testify, they mostly sit by as the lawyers and the court do the talking. They have very limited, if any, control of the situation. Litigation is also very costly and time consuming.”

In collaborative law, the parties are not bystanders, they are the main participants. No one has more interest in attaining an appropriate, realistic outcome for themselves and their children. Certainly, no one is more expert in their family’s needs and unique issues. Working together, the parties identify goals and issues, collect information, brainstorm potential outcomes, weigh the pros and cons of each choice and arrive at solutions. They end with an agreement that best meets their needs. Because cooperation and compromise are necessary, most parties learn a new pattern of communication and dispute resolution that they carry with them as their lives as co-parents or acquaintances evolve. The procedure is more respectful, less time consuming, is less emotionally draining and generally, less expensive.

Both collaborative lawyers provide legal advice and advocacy during negotiations. Our job includes guiding both parties toward reasonable resolution. We are specially trained in the collaborative law process and alternative dispute resolution techniques. We are there to maintain the collaborative framework and help our clients use the process to obtain the best result for their family.”