Collaborative Law

Austin, Texas, Collaborative Law Attorney

Collaborative law is an alternative to the traditional litigated divorce in Texas. It gives the two parties an opportunity to achieve a negotiated settlement to issues such as property division, child custody and visitation in divorce.

I'm Gregory Hitt, a collaborative law attorney in Austin, Texas. I am a founding member and past president of the Austin Collaborative Law Group, an organization of lawyers who seek to find an alternative to drawn-out court battles as a way to resolve disputes in divorce.

Collaborative law is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). While collaborative law can be adversarial, it is fundamentally different from a traditional contested divorce in that the two parties and their lawyers agree to resolve their disputes without going to court. If the parties are unable to reach an agreement through the collaborative process, they can still go to court. However, they would both have to hire new lawyers. This provides a motivation for both parties and their lawyers to pursue a resolution.

While the collaborative law approach does not have to be friendly, it is designed to be cooperative and civil. Each side is guided by his or her own lawyer through a series of meetings that are designed to reach a settlement based on the interests of each party. It can involve experts such a property appraisers, financial planners, accountants and psychologists. Such experts are hired jointly by the parties, so the experts don’t have an allegiance to one side or the other. If the parties can work through difficult issues they would otherwise have fought over in court, there is the potential to save money on litigation expenses.

Collaborative divorce allows the parties to obtain an outcome they can predict and control. In my experience, collaborative law produces a divorce settlement that is more lasting and respected since it is created by two parties rather than imposed by a judge.

Contact me, lawyer Gregory Hitt, for a personal consultation about collaborative law. My office is located in downtown Austin, within a block of the Travis County Courthouse.