“Adding Cooperative Practice to the ADR Toolkit, Part Three”– EngagingConflicts.com
This is one of Guest Blogger Law Professor John Lande’s posts in his series “Adding Cooperative Practice to the ADR Toolkit”. His Introduction is posted here. [Earlier Parts to the series are posted here: Part One, Part Two]
Part Three: Cooperative Practice And Why Some Parties May Prefer It To Collaborative Practice
Cooperative Practice is relatively new and provides a desirable alternative for some parties. The Divorce Cooperation Institute Wisconsin started offering it in 2003. The Boston Law Collaborative and the Mid-Missouri Collaborative and Cooperative Law Association began offering it in 2005.
Although a Cooperative process is often used in family cases, the lack of a disqualification agreement makes it attractive in non-family cases. For example, the Garvey Schubert Barer law firm offers a form of Cooperative Practice called Win2 (Win Squared) in labor and employment cases.
Parties may prefer a Cooperative process over a Collaborative process when they:(1)trust the other party to some extent but are uncertain about that person’s intent to cooperate, (2) do not want to lose their lawyer’s services in litigation if needed, (3) cannot afford to pay a substantial retainer to hire new litigation counsel in event of an impasse, or (4) fear that the other side would take advantage of the process, particularly in cases involving serious domestic abuse. Of course, parties may prefer mediation if they want a third party to manage the process or they may prefer a Collaborative process if they want the security provided by the disqualification agreement.
I discussed these issues in more detail in an article I co-authored with Gregg Herman entitled, “Fitting the Forum to the Family Fuss: Choosing Mediation, Collaborative Law, or Cooperative Law for Negotiating Divorce Cases.” You can go to my website to see the other articles I have written on the subject.
John’s series will continue next week with his study of “The Divorce Cooperation Institute And How DCI Lawyers Do Cooperative Practice”.
