After practicing family law through the traditional litigation process for about twenty years in multiple jurisdictions, I realized that most every family law litigation case has one thing in common, they result in absolute destruction in every possible direction. The parties are financially and emotionally damaged, the litigant’s children are emotionally damaged, relationships with family and friends of the litigants are damaged, and the attorneys, whether they will admit it or not, are also negatively impacted.
As I was hitting the point where I did not think I could continue practicing, knowing the destructive wake I was leaving in my career path, I had an absolute revelation when I learned about Collaboration. I was completely energized and was ready to convert my entire practice immediately to a non-litigation, Collaborative Practice. I was all in! I immediately registered and completed my initial Collaborative training, added a page about Collaboration to my website, and began trying to describe it to clients in every consultation. However, my level of enthusiasm did not match the Collaborative results I obtained. Three years after having completed my training, I was really feeling the failure of having only completed 3 Collaborative cases (1 a year for 2017, 2018, and 2019), and my dream of having a solely Collaborative Practice was dying.
The main problem I encountered with transitioning to a non-litigation practice was that I struggled with needing to still make money, and therefore, it was extremely difficult to turn away paying clients just because they or the other party would not agree to participate in the Collaborative process. And, with the demands that come with a large litigation caseload, it became even harder for me to also try to expend energy working on something new, like Collaboration. I just kept falling back into what was familiar to me, litigation. It seemed impossible to get off the litigation merry-go-round.
Then I had a second amazing revelation that turned things around for me, and that was when I heard about unbundled services, also known as limited services. If you have ever been to an a la carte restaurant, where they offer individual food items for you to choose from to create a combination of flavors that you want, you will be able to relate to the beauty of unbundled legal services.
Unfortunately, so many people are without the financial resources to afford legal representation in their family law case. This is even after they have tapped into all of their credit cards and family members for support.
The structure of traditional legal representation has not helped this problem either, as it usually requires the client to come up with a large initial retainer to hire an attorney. Then, once the initial retainer is used, the client is required to continually replenish their initial retainer with more money. Ultimately, this process leaves some people either unable to hire an attorney at all, or leaves them later facing the attorney terminating their relationship when the client can no longer continue to pay for the attorney’s services.
Offering unbundled services to this large section of the population enabled me to finally make the instant transition out of litigation that I had been dreaming about. So, armed with my new knowledge and strategy, I decided I was going to tackle all of my consultations that week (5 of them) from a stance that I do not litigate. I proceeded to explain to each of my potential clients that I have learned over the years how very destructive litigation can be, and therefore, I have chosen not to be a part of it anymore. I went on to advise each of them that instead I prefer to utilize my skills to help facilitate a settlement for my client. I explained the benefits of having the parties keeping control of their future, and about how I could represent them to do pieces of their case that they need, like filing their answer or petition, attend mediation with them, facilitate out of court settlement negotiations, or (saving the best for last) use the Collaborative process to facilitate their out of court settlement. I was absolutely stunned that every single client I met with that first week retained my services to represent them in all sorts of different limited ways, none of which involved litigation. I couldn’t believe how easy it was! And it was so freeing to say, “I am not going to go to court with you,” and have it accepted by the client.
Since my second revelation early in 2020, I have had 5 more collaborative cases, my non-litigation practice has developed into a full caseload, and I only have a few of my original litigation cases left to finalize. I cannot stress how unbelievably instrumental the use of the unbundled services option was in enabling me to keep steady revenue coming into my office, while permitting me to focus on developing my Collaborative practice, and Collaborative awareness in my community. Development of my non-litigation practice continues to evolve; however, learning about offering the unbundled services option to my clients to instantly transform my practice was a real game changer. I encourage anyone who is contemplating making the leap out of litigation to try it.