Should I Trust a Recommendation from My Spouse’s Collaborative Attorney About Who to Hire to Represent Me?
Here is a common hypothetical scenario to consider: you and your spouse are preparing to separate, or have recently separated, and your spouse has hired a collaborative lawyer to represent him/her. You have not yet hired an attorney and so your spouse provides you with names of other collaborative attorneys who his/her attorney recommends for you to meet with. Should you trust these recommendations?
The short answer is yes, and let me explain why. In order for the collaborative process to work, there must be some fundamental trust: trust in the process you have chosen; trust between the professionals involved; and, to some extent, trust between you and your spouse that you will participate in the process in good faith. The relationship between the two collaborative attorneys involved in your case will have a significant impact on how efficient and productive the process ends up being. When I make recommendations to my client’s spouse regarding a collaborative attorney to represent him/her, I recommend attorneys with whom I have worked well in the past on collaborative cases and attorneys whom I know well enough to feel comfortable doing a collaborative case. I would never recommend someone I do not respect because I know that having an effective and trustworthy lawyer on the opposite of the case increases the likelihood of a durable and lasting resolution for the parties.
Courtney Smith is an attorney at Hatcher Law Group who focuses on helping people accomplish their goals through the legal system by providing guidance and realistic expectations.