Searching for a Collaborative Divorce Lawyer in MA
So, just how does one go about first locating the elusive collaborative divorce attorney of Massachusetts? As a protected species, they are illegal to hunt and trapping them can be time consuming. Do not fear however, there are much easier methods available. If you are interested in a collaborative divorce, you and your spouse each have to select a trained collaborative attorney to represent your interests. Upon learning about collaborative divorce, one spouse will frequently ask us how they can provide information to their spouse not only aboutthe collaborative law process, but help their spouse locate a collaborative divorce attorney in Massachusetts. Two online resources make this a relatively simple task. After locating some options, it will be up to your spouse to meet with the individual attorney and make their own final hiring decision of course.
One option is the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council website. Once on this site, you can search through the list of practitioners and read some basic background information, including useful links to their individual website and blog. This site currently offers two profile types, the regular profile and an enhanced profile that the practitioner must pay an extra fee for. My advice is not to base your decision on which practitioners have a paid profile, as some members (myself included) prefer to have prospective clients visit their own website and/or blog to obtain more detailed information. One downside of this site is the inability to filter your search by geographic region. For example, if you were looking for a divorce lawyer in Franklin, MA, you would have to read through the names of attorneys, divorce coaches, or financial professionals in order to find someone in your area.
A second website to definitely visit is the International Association of Collaborative Professionals. Besides having a substantial amount of information for the public about collaborative divorce, they also provide listings of collaborative professionals. Fortunately, the collaborative professionals on this site may be searched by geographic terms. As a side note, all members of the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council are also members of the IACP, but this may not be the case in different states.
Finally, some collaborative attorneys may provide their client a list of collaboratively trained lawyers in their area so that this list can be shared with the other spouse. Personally, I do not provide such a list unless I am assured a person does not have computer access. There are a number of reasons why I personally shy away from this practice, including the fact that the active collaborative divorce lawyers in any region is always changing, and I think it promotes the feelings by some people that some collaborative lawyers are too “clicky.” Finally, I just find it odd to refer the other side of a case to their attorney when other simple options exist for the spouse of my client to make an informed decision on their own.
