How expensive is Collaborative Law?
No one can predict exactly what you will pay for this kind of representation because every case is different. Your issues may be simple or complex; you and your partner may have already reached agreement on most, or none, of your issues. You may be very finicky, or very casual, in your approach to problems. You and your partner may be at very different emotional stages in separating from one another.

What can be said with confidence is that no other kind of professional conflict resolution assistance is consistently as efficient or economical as Collaborative Law.

Isn't mediation cheaper? It is only one neutral, instead of two lawyers, that has to be paid.
No, mediation is not usually cheaper. Because there is nobody in a mediation negotiation whose job it is to help the client refine issues and participate with maximum effectiveness in the process, mediation can become stalled more easily than Collaborative Law does. Mediations can take longer, and involve more wheel-spinning, than Collaborative Law negotiations. They also can be at greater risk for falling apart entirely, since the mediator must remain neutral and cannot work with the more disturbed client to get past impasses. In either event, the resulting inefficiencies can be costly.

Also, most mediators strongly urge that independent attorneys for each party review and approve the mediated agreement. If the lawyers have not been a part of the negotiations, the lawyers may be unhappy with the results and a new phase of negotiations or even litigation may result. If the lawyers do participate, then three professionals are being paid in the mediation.

Those of us who do both mediation and Collaborative Law see Collaborative Law as the more efficient and less costly of the two modes, for most people. Of course, if two very calm and reasonable people whose issues are not complex go to a mediator, they can often achieve agreement efficiently and often at low cost. But generally it is only after the fact that we know who those "model clients" are. Strong feelings arise unexpectedly; issues become more complicated than anyone anticipated. Collaborative Law can deal well with these predictable happenings.

Many people genuinely believe that they will have a very quick and simple divorce negotiation, but life can be surprising. In my experience it is better to have a process in place that is well-equipped to deal with the unexpected problems than to have to terminate a mediation and start over with litigation counsel.

How does the cost of Collaborative Law compare with the cost of litigation?
Litigation is, quite simply, the most expensive way of resolving a dispute. By way of illustration, it is common for litigated divorces to begin with a motion for temporary support. The result is exactly that--a temporary order, not any final resolution of the issues. Typically, it can cost my clients from $3,000 to $6,000 (and sometimes more) just for my own attorneys' fees to deal with the temporary support motion. The entire divorce still remains to be dealt with.

It is not unusual for my entire bill for all the work I do in a Collaborative Law representation to be lower than that. Of course, in some instances the issues are complicated or the parties resistant to settlement, and the fees can be higher. But the usual cost for my client is from $3,000 to $6,000, total. Even in the cases where my bill is higher than that, it is a certainty that my fees for litigating the same issues would be a great deal higher. I generally estimate that litigating an issue costs roughly ten times more, at minimum, than resolving it through the Collaborative Law process.