Calling Collaborative Lawyers to the Kootenays

Today, I found myself wondering, as I often do, why there are no other collaborative lawyers besides me living in the East or West Kootenays. I am passionate about collaborative practice. So far, in the West Kootenay about 100 couples have used the collaborative way to resolve their legal issues at Resolution Place. I am involved with the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals. But I can’t offer collaborative practice to my home community by myself. The process requires each party to have their own collaborative lawyer. So, we import Vancouver lawyer, Danny Zack, here to Nelson to work on almost every collaborative case we have in the Kootenays.

Not every lawyer is suitable to be a collaborative lawyer. As a lawyer, I must absolutely trust the collaborative lawyer with whom I sign a Participation Agreement. Danny’s the best. I love working with Danny, who has been practising law for about 40 years. Danny is considered by many to be the British Columbia guru of collaborative practice. I am grateful to have the opportunity to hone my collaborative legal skills on every case I work on here in Nelson, by working with Danny, who perhaps is the most experienced collaborative lawyer in British Columbia.

Together Danny and I work, in every collaborative case, to create a safe place where our clients can negotiate their legal issues. With Danny, it is easy to help our clients find that safe zone. It is an honour and a pleasure to work with Danny. But, it would be more convenient and less expensive for our clients if there were other collaborative lawyers resident here in the Nelson area.

I have been offering collaborative practise through my Nelson law firm for almost 10 years now. Where are you other collaborative lawyers? Working in a collaborative way with my learned friends is so much more satisfying than working against them through litigation.

Collaborative practice is a better way to practise law. It’s easier on the lawyer’s health. Perhaps, part of the reason for the absence of other collaborative lawyers around here is that there is an overall shortage of lawyers in rural British Columbia, period. That’s why the CBA has the R.E.A.L program, where several rural lawyers are paid each summer to employ a third year law student with the hopes that student will see the obvious merits of practising law in a rural community, and return to work after completing law school. Rural lawyers’ plates are full, why would they want to stop work to retrain as collaborative lawyers?

Maybe it’s because collaborative practice is, after all, contrary to what we lawyers learn at law school, which is to “position” our clients. Danny and I work hard together at helping our clients avoid getting entrenched in positions, and instead to focus on creating solution options that try to meet the needs, values and interest of each person affected by the decisions being made.

Are there any good collaborative lawyers out there who would love to have a rewarding and interesting career as a collaborative lawyer here in Nelson, British Columbia, the Queen City of the Kootenays, surely one of the most beautiful places on earth? Your fascinating and rewarding collaborative law practice may be waiting for you here on the shores of Kootenay Lake. Come co-mediate with me.

Namaste

Susan Kurtz

Collaborative Lawyer Nelson, BC

Collaborative Law - Did you know?

Collaborative Law Group of Nelson -- NoCourt.ca

• Collaborative lawyers are interested in helping opposing parties reach mutually acceptable terms of a legally enforceable Separation Agreement.
• You can apply for a no court divorce after you have reached the terms of a Separation Agreement through the collaborative divorce process.
• Alternative dispute resolution is about find solutions rather than proving who is right.
• It is very important that your rights and your children’s rights are protected through the terms of a separation agreement before you apply for a no court divorce.
• Divorce does not have to be a fight. Let us coach you to design your own final divorce order through agreement. The Collaborative Process is the dignified way to divorce.
• Collaborative lawyers are also trained mediators. But, a mediator alone cannot offer legal advice. In collaborative divorce, you have your legal adviser with you at all times.
• Collaborative lawyers are interested in the health and well being of their community more than helping you prove who is right. Collaborative divorce is a healthy and dignified and fair solution.
• Courts are about laying blame and finding fault. Collaborative divorce is no fault divorce. Collaborative law is about finding solutions to disputes.
• In the court process, a judge decides who is the winner and who is the loser. In a collaborative divorce, the each member of the family are winners.

Collaborative Law Group of Nelson -- NoCourt.ca

Collaborative Law Group of Nelson

The Collaborative Law Group of Nelson offers a healthy and dignified no court solution to divorce and other civil disputes to the residents of the East and West Kootenays, including Nelson, Castlegar, Trail, Salmo, Nakusp, Slocan, Creston, Kaslo, Silverton, New Denver and Rossland.

We are a group of independent professional lawyers, counsellors, financial advisors and child specialists who are all highly skilled mediators and trained at working together collaboratively to provide you and your family assistance when you need it most, that is, when you are moving through a family transition. We join professional Collaborative Practice Groups that have now formed in every major centre throughout North America and Europe so that the residents of the East and West Kootenay have available in the local area The Collaborative Way to Divorce, a concept created by Stuart G. Webb and Ronald D. Ousky in 1999, and now a book by the same name.

Visit the Collaborative Law Group of Nelson web site for more information.