Page 15 - Demo

THE DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCESS
We thank you for having retained our of ces to assist you in resolving the differences that have arisen between yourself and your former spouse upon the breakdown of your relationship. It is important at the outset that we stress that a solution to your dif culties will be achieved by you with your spouse, not by your lawyer. The role of our of ce is to assist you in achieving that resolution. We take this opportunity to provide this outline to you to help you understand how that process will unfold.
INTRODUCTION:
For many families the problem solving skills that existed within the family and the communication skills that existed within the family are at their lowest around the time of the break up of the relationship. At the same time, this is when most couples face the greatest demand for their problem solving skills and their communication skills. There are large issues before the parties which need to be resolved and yet seemingly the skills needed to resolve those problems are not available. The role of your lawyer and the role of the legal system is to assist the parties in coming to a resolution by nding alternate ways to problem solve and alternate ways to communicate.
Throughout the course of your involvement with our of ces you will always have three mechanisms by which you can solve the difference between yourself and your former partner: negotiation, mediation, and litigation. We will outline what each of these approaches mean and some of the bene ts and disadvantages of each of the approaches.
a. Negotiation:
Negotiation involves communication between the parties themselves, if their communication skills are strong, or between the parties through their lawyers, if the communication skills are not strong at a particular point in time. Through negotiation, the parties either directly or through their lawyers are trying to resolve their differences without involving any outside person. The parties are trying to craft a solution that is best suited for them and which is particular to their circumstances.
When the communication skills between the parties are not strong, either party may involve their lawyer to negotiate on their behalf with respect to a particular issue. The lawyers, being more emotionally removed from the situation can assist the parties in nding solutions for what may seem to be insurmountable problems by suggesting solutions that may have worked for other people in the past or by providing some comments about proposed solutions, such as suggesting where the other people in the past have had dif culties with the solution that may be suggested by the parties themselves. You can draw upon our experiences to nd solutions you may not have thought of or get some feedback about the long term bene ts of the solutions you may be contemplating.
Negotiations, either directly between the parties themselves or through their lawyers, work well for issues where the parties are not that far apart. It is important that you remember from the outset that different issues may be resolved by different mechanisms. For example, even though the parties are quite far apart on issues relating to custody and access, they may be able to readily negotiate, either directly or through their lawyers, how payment of the mortgage will be handled on the short term or what ought to happen to a joint bank account. Our of ces will, during the initial consultation process, help you identify which issues need to be addressed in the short term and which issues need to be addressed in the long term. We can then discuss with you the advisability of negotiating each of those issues directly or through the lawyers.
Negotiations are not suitable when you know from the outset that the parties are very far apart in terms of their proposed solutions to the same problem.
MACDONALD & PARTNERS LLP