The Collaborative Law Group of the Kootenays
On March 6, 2026, a group of us officially launched the Collaborative Law Group of the Kootenays. Our team’s goal is to offer a practical alternative to the traditional way people work through separation and divorce.
The traditional way most couples deal with separation and divorce is to “lawyer up”. Each person hires their lawyer with the hope that, in time, an arrangement is found for the division of property and support payments are calculated for dependent children and the lower income spouse. Over time, most cases work out, but sometimes it does not. The hope is that couples do not go to court, but sometimes a judge needs to impose a settlement.
Our process starts with the understanding that the divorce will be achieved by avoiding court. Each person in the divorce will have a collaboratively trained family lawyer. In addition to the specialist lawyers, other professional specialists will be available to help. The other specialists are a divorce coach, a family specialist and a financial neutral.
Each professional within the Collaborative Law Group of the Kootenays brings their talent and experience to every case with the goal being to help the challenged parties, including any children, to a new starting point.
Separation and divorce are not what couples plan for. But as people say in the vernacular, “stuff happens.” As couples go through this trauma, it is common for anger, sadness and “getting even” emotions to take over any sense of rationality.
Fighting is extremely expensive and, unless one has the resources of Solomon, separation and divorce will reduce the amount of your net worth very quickly.
The attached illustration shows how fighting undermines each couple’s wealth.
In this very simple illustration, the net worth to be divided was $500,000. By fighting, at a rate of around $500/hour for each lawyer, it does not take much time to burn through a lot of money. If, however, couples make the rational decision to accept that the marriage is over and chose find a problem solving solution rather than a fighting solution, each couple will have more wealth with which to restart their lives.
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