The purpose of offering reduced-fee (low bono) or no-cost (pro bono) Collaborative
services is to increase awareness of the Collaborative Family Law Process and make it
accessible to families who may not otherwise have the financial means to participate.
Each participating family is supported by a dedicated team of professionals, including
two Collaborative attorneys, a neutral mental health facilitator, and a neutral financial
expert. Working together, this team helps families reach thoughtful, practical resolutions
that prioritize the needs of both the clients and their children.
Pro Bono Program Guidelines
Legal Aid or JFS or any prospective Clients can contact the committee in the following way; via
the Choose Collaborative Website or a collaborative professional. When a potential case comes
in through each respective agency, JFS will do the financial screening for pro bono and low
bono cases, and legal aid will screen for pro bono cases. Any cases that come in from any other
source will be reviewed by the Choose Collaborative Pro Bono Committee for both financial and
DV screening.
Criteria for the financial screening will be as follows:
Pro bono qualifies at 200% of current poverty guidelines based on family size (example: family
with 3 members =income of $53,300/yr.; 4-member family = income $64,300/yr.; 5-member
family = income $75,300) net liquid assets < $125 000 this will have to be reviewed by
committee on a case-by-case basis.
Low bono qualifies at household income of <$100,000 and Net Liquid Assets <$125,000 (this
will have to be reviewed by the committee on a case-by-case basis)
Members of the Pro Bono Committee, also known as the Triage committee which is established
by Collaborative Group, will meet with the Client(s) to see if they will be a suitable candidates
for the collaborative process.
Triage Committee will assign the professionals for each case. More experienced professionals
will be paired with less experienced professionals in order to provide mentoring within the
group. In some cases it may be possible to include additional professionals to assist or just
observe.
At the first meeting between team and clients the MHP will screen for drug or alcohol and DV
issues. Collaborative Group will not accept any cases where there has been an injunction in
place, or a history of an injunction.
Collaborative Group will have a letter that we will provide to party in order to explain
Collaborative process and help them to explain same to their spouse. Triage group will provide
client(s) with a participation agreement that includes rules of conduct. Each profession within
the team will provide client(s) with a copy of their individual retainer agreement to sign.
Client(s) may be asked to “pay it forward” and donate their time to other charitable causes.
Clients will be given a one-time exchange of their Attorney, if for whatever reason they decide
that they cannot work with the Attorney assigned to them. After that there is no substitution.
There will be a limit of 15 hours of volunteer time from each professional in all pro bono cases.
There will be a limit to consecutive 3-month period and a maximum of 4 team meetings to
resolve the case. After 15 hours the professional team members will have to mutually agree to
continue for additional time. This fact will be spelled out in the participation agreement.
There will be a limit of 15 hours of volunteer time from each professional in low-bono cases.
There will be a limit to consecutive 3-month period and a maximum of 4 team meetings to
resolve the case. After 15 hours the professional team members will have to mutually agree to
continue for additional time. Once the professional exceeds the 15 hours of time then his/her
rates may increase from the original low-bono rates of Attorney $150/hr. and Neutrals
$125/hr.; increase to Attorney rate of $250/hr. and Neutral rate of $200/hr. This will be spelled
out in the participation agreement.
On low bono cases, each professional will receive a non-refundable, up-front retainer equal to
15 times his/her reduced hourly rate: Attorney $2,250 and Neutrals $1,875 for a total of $4,125
per client.
Client(s) will be responsible for all court filing fees. Pro bono client (s) are able to go to
courthouse and may be granted an indigency exception for the fee. Low bono will have pay the
filing fees of approximately $400 per case.
All professionals will use standard forms that are agreed upon by Collaborative professionals
prior to the first case meeting.
All surveys and statistical forms will be filled out at the end of each case in order to track and
maintain proper collaborative data. MHP in each case will gather and verify that this is done in
accordance with the requirements.
Contact
For more information, please contact Karen Sacks at ksacks@crsforlife.com or Eilene Brodie at eilene@jdgilbert.com.
