Rule 16 Authority of Tribunal in Case of Noncompliance

Judges have some flexibility when a collaborative law agreement is not filled out correctly or a lawyer misses a required step. If the paperwork is not perfect, but both people clearly meant to start a collaborative process, the court can still treat their case as a valid collaborative law case. To do this, the court looks at two things: did both sides sign something showing they meant to work through collaborative law, and did they honestly believe they were doing this process the right way.

If the judge decides both of these things are true, and treating the case this way is fair, the judge has some options. The judge can enforce any agreement the couple or parties reached during the process, even if the original paperwork had problems. The judge can also still apply the normal rules that stop the collaborative lawyers from representing their clients later in court, and can still protect private conversations from the collaborative process under the confidentiality rule.

In short, small paperwork mistakes will not automatically ruin a collaborative law case. As long as the people involved genuinely tried to follow the collaborative process and believed they were doing it correctly, the court can still honor what they worked out and protect the same rights and privacy rules that normally apply.