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Global Collaborative Law Council
(formerly Texas Collaborative Law Council)
Collaborative Resolution of Civil Disputes
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Ethics Opinions on Collaborative Law:
- Legal ethics opinions in nine states have addressed Collaborative Law: Minnesota (1997), North
Carolina (2002), Pennsylvania (2004), Maryland (2004), Kentucky (2005), New
Jersey (2005), Colorado (2007), Washington (2007), Missouri (2008) and South Carolina (2010). All state ethics opinions, except the Colorado opinion, approve the use of Collaborative Law with appropriate precautions, such as the importance of obtaining informed consent.
- In August 2007, in response to the Colorado opinion the American
Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional
Responsibility issued Formal
Opinion 07-477, which squarely supports Collaborative Law provided that the client been has been informed about the benefits and risks of participating in the process and given his or her informed consent. Although the ABA Ethics Opinion is not binding on states, it has been and will continue to be persuasive as ethical opinions are issued by other states in the future.
- In October, 2008, the Collaborative Law Committee of the
ABA Section of Dispute Resolution issued a Discussion Draft
entitled Summary
of Ethics Rules Governing Collaborative Practice,
The white paper addresses ethical issues considered in existing
state court opinions and ABA
Formal Opinion 07-477.
State Collaborative Law Statutes and Court Rules:
- Following the enactment of the Texas
statute in 2001 which
placed collaborative law procedures in the Family Code, two
other states have enacted collaborative law statutes. The North
Carolina statute (2003) is patterned after the Texas statute.
The California statute (2007)
requires a written agreement, but does not specifically define
the elements of the collaborative law process. In addition, courts in California, Florida, Minnesota, and Utah have enacted rules providing for the use of Collaborative Law.
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