Why Canada’s move toward cooperation in divorce is a good one

Nine years ago, Dr. Julie Macfarlane prepared an interesting family law study for the Department of Justice that painted a picture of what family law looks like in Canada and how the exponential growth of collaborative family law was becoming an increasing part of that picture. A few things have certainly changed since 2005, when the study was released, but when we recently went back and read through her findings, it highlighted some of the reasons that we support and practice collaborative family law.

The problem seeking a solution

In our last blog post, we talked about how many reviews of the controversial film Divorce Corp. seemed to see alternative legal methods like collaborative law as productive solutions to a challenging family legal system. Macfarlane’s report “The Emerging Phenomenon of Collaborative Family Law (CLF): A Qualitative Study of CFL Cases” seems to set up a similar scenario where Canadians are seeking change in the court system.

“For more than two decades, some of the most respected scholars in the field of dispute resolution have questioned the apparently intrinsic bias of litigation against cooperative, problem-solving outcomes for clients,” writes Macfarlane. What she goes on to clarify is that there has been a decline in cooperation when it comes to family law. Many people feel like costs are escalating unnecessarily, there’s an added pressure to compete, and that the legal culture seems to drive lawyers away from cooperating with each other.

When we read studies like this, we find ourselves feeling discouraged that this is the reality of some families’ experiences with family law, but also encouraged that we are a part of the solution as collaborative professionals.

The journey towards collaboration

Collaborative family law really began with a shift from competition to settlement. Looking back, it’s easy to see that treating family law as a battle was heading in a dangerous direction, but major shifts like this take time and we’re so thankful for early adopters who paved the way for cooperative approaches to family law.

Minneapolis was the first place where a network of collaborative lawyers joined together in 1990, followed by many U.S. states and in 1999, Canada started creating groups of lawyers who wanted to be a part of Collaborative Practice. Some lawyers took this non-adversarial approach to their cases earlier than 1999, but the concept was still pretty new at this point.

Continuing to grow strong

By the time Macfarlane published her study, collaborative family law was already widely practiced in Canada. If you have the time to look through her report, you’ll get a great glimpse into the journey that Canadians took to get to this method of family law, but we wanted to give you a quick look at how family law has changed and is continuing to move in the direction of settlement over competition. Gone are the days when families have no choice but to head to court and can instead opt to stay out of court and seek a resolution together to best serve their family.

If you would like more information about how Collaborative Practice works, please visit What is Collaborative Practice?

If you’re a legal, family, or financial professional and you’re interested in becoming a member of Collaborative Practice Toronto, please visit For Professionals.