In May 2016, Tampa hosted the 4th Annual Conference of the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals. The conference ended up being the largest gathering of collaboratively-trained attorneys, mental health professionals, and financial professionals in the organization’s history.
You can find a video of highlights of the conference after the jump.
Tampa Bay Times Columnist Sue Carlton writes in the September 26, 2016 edition of the newspaper about a growing trend in Florida Family Law Courts: Petitions for Change of Legal Name by transgender individuals.
In Florida, courts grant requests for changes of name relatively freely. So long as a person has not been convicted of a felony (or, if they have been convicted of a felony, then they must have had their civil rights restored), and that the person is not seeking the name change for an illegal or ulterior purpose (such as to avoid a debt or lawsuit), the court will generally grant your request for a name change.
However, you must take the required steps for a name change, including properly filing a petition, going through a background check by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Federal Bureau of Investigation, and appearing before a judge for questioning.
The fact that a person is changing a name from one that is associated with one gender to a name that is associated with a different gender should not make a difference.
Parts of the Tampa Bay Times article, A new frontier for Florida courts: Transgender name changes, can be found after the jump:
The World of Collaborative Practice Magazine is an online forum for collaborative professionals to write about news as well as the latest trends in collaborative practice. On September 15, 2016, the Magazine published the transcript of an iHeart radio interview from here in Tampa of a father discussing his collaborative divorce. The father, “Claire,” appeared with his collaborative attorney Julia Best Chase, along with Family Diplomacy managing attorney Adam B. Cordover, who represented Clair’s wife.
You can find a portion of the article reproduced after the jump.
Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Law Mediator Adam B. Cordover served as an Intern Trainer for Forrest (Woody) Mosten’s 40-Hour Family Law Mediation Training. The training took place September 13-17, 2016, in Los Angeles, California.
Woody Mosten has been on the cutting edge of the law for over four decades as a leading figure in legal clinics, unbundled legal services, mediation, and collaborative law. He literally wrote the book on these subjects, as he is the author or co-author of seminal works in the field, including the Mediation Career Guide, Collaborative Divorce Handbook, the Complete Guide to Mediation, and Unbundling Legal Services.
Further, Woody Mosten and Adam B. Cordover have been tasked by the American Bar Association to write a book on Building A Successful Collaborative Law Practice, which is expected to be published in early 2017.
An adoption client recently reviewed Family Diplomacy: A Collaborative Law Firm on Avvo.com.
FLORIDA BAR DISCLAIMER: Please note that every case is different, and you may not receive the same or similar results. You can find the review after the jump.
In March of 2016, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law the Collaborative Law Process Act (“CLPA”). The CLPA, among other things, protects communications within the collaborative process so that participants can be more open in their discussions and can rest assured that proposals and comments made while trying to reach agreement cannot later be used against them.
However, the CLPA does not go into effect until after the Florida Supreme Court adopts Rules of Professional Conduct and Rules of Procedure.
Proposed rules have been approved by the Florida Board of Governors, and they have been published in the August 15, 2016 edition of the Florida Bar News for comment. Once the comment period is over, the Florida Supreme Court will determine whether it will approve the rules.
You can find the proposed Rule of Professional Conduct (4-1.19) after the jump (the proposed Rule of Procedure is published in a separate post):
In March of 2016, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law the Collaborative Law Process Act (“CLPA”). The CLPA, among other things, protects communications within the collaborative process so that participants can be more open in their discussions and can rest assured that proposals and comments made while trying to reach agreement cannot later be used against them.
However, the CLPA does not go into effect until after the Florida Supreme Court adopts Rules of Professional Conduct and Rules of Procedure.
Proposed rules have been approved by the Florida Board of Governors, and they have been published in the August 15, 2016 edition of the Florida Bar News for comment. Once the comment period is over, the Florida Supreme Court will determine whether it will approve the rules.
You can find the proposed Family Law Rule of Procedure (12.475) after the jump (the Rule of Conduct is published in a separate post):
Joryn Jenkins, a Tampa Bay collaborative attorney and multi-book author, has recently published her latest offering, “Open for Business: Changing the Way the World Gets Divorced.” The book focuses on marketing for collaborative professionals.
Joryn, a friend and colleague of Family Diplomacy managing attorney Adam B. Cordover, acknowledges Cordover’s impact on the collaborative community along with founders and leaders of the collaborative movement:
Collaborative family law is a process that can be tailored to your family’s specific needs. In all collaborative cases, issues related to divorce are discussed peacefully and respectfully in private conference rooms rather than confrontationally in public courtrooms. Each spouse has their own attorney – who focuses exclusively on helping his or her client reach an out-of-court agreement – on whom the spouse can rely to provide advice and guide them throughout.
Oftentimes, experts are brought into the collaborative process so that the clients can reach a comprehensive agreement that deals not only with legal issues, but also emotional and financial resolutions. Experts end up making the process much more efficient by being able to handle issues far more quickly than attorneys are able to.
One option that families may want to consider is whether to bring in a child specialist. The short video after the jump, produced by Cypress Collaborative Divorce, discusses the role of the child specialist.
On August 24, 2016, Family Diplomacy managing attorney Adam B. Cordover spoke in Jacksonville, Florida, on the topic of “Collaborative Divorce for the Middle Class.” The workshop was organized by the Collaborative Family Law Group of Northeast Florida.
Collaborative divorce is a process that is available to help families privately and respectfully reach agreements no matter their income level or size of their estate. Though it has been thought of as alternative dispute resolution for the rich (and it certainly is an effective method for handling complicated cases), more middle class families are learning that it is accessible for them, as well.
If both spouses can hire attorneys, then the question becomes not whether they can afford collaborative practice, but whether they can afford any billable hours being spent on anything other than trying to reach an out-of-court agreement.
