What I Do

Collaborative Law: My primary focus in all three areas of my practice is now in Collaborative Law. Through the Collaborative Law process, the attorneys and other professionals (such as a communications coach, financial planner, child specialist, retirement specialist) assist the parties in resolving their cases by interest-based negotiation (positive/constructive) rather than position-based negotiation (negative/destructive) without the trauma or expense of “going to court.” This is accomplished by face-to-face meetings where we explore the parties’ interests, goals and options and in a very civilized approach and reach a “win-win” resolution for the parties.
            Family Law: I help individuals and families restructure from a married family to a two-household family without ravaging their relationship, their children or their estate. If the parties have children they will always be “blood-kin” because they share “blood” through their children. My job is to help then transition to a sort of distant relative relationship; we may not always like our relatives but we do almost always love them and can work with them because we are “blood related.”
            Guardianship: I assist individuals and families in developing and implementing a long-term plan that will most effectively enable them to care for their incapacitated loved one in their personal and financial needs.
            Probate: I assist individuals and families in developing and implementing a long-term estate plan that will meet their needs during their lifetime and most efficiently and cost effectively transfer their estate to those persons or entities they wish upon their death. This estate planning includes such documents as Medical Powers of Attorney (dealing with issues regarding health care), Statutory Durable Powers of Attorney (dealing with financial issues), Designation of Guardian in the Event the Need Arises, Physician’s Directive (Living Will), and other estate planning issues and documents.
            Litigation: As will be described below, my primary focus is now on collaborative law in family, probate, estate planning and guardianship. However, in certain cases, litigation becomes a necessity. In those cases, after practicing nearly twenty-five years, I am ready and able to litigate if that becomes a necessity. As a lawyer, litigation is probably the most stimulating of all legal exercises. Drafting pleadings, written interrogatories, requests for production of documents, taking depositions, and going to trial is what most lawyers trained for in law school. Great television is made about famous trials. But in the end, huge amounts of money are spent and both parties usually feel that they have been ravaged by the judicial system. One collaborative lawyer stated that he believes it is much easier to go over to the Courthouse and “rip out the jugular vein of the other side” than to keep emotions in check for hours at a time during the collaborative negotiation process and resolve the case through that type of diplomacy. Whatever the client’s desire, whether litigation or collaborative, I am ready to represent them, but it is obvious which is my preference. That is not to say that I do not personally love trial and the adrenaline rush that winning gives me, but I must put my client’s and his or her children’s or family’s best interest before my own, and therefore I am compelled to present an honest picture of the options. However, even just recently I was involved in a three-week custody and property trial in a divorce case. All the attorneys in the case had tried to persuade the parties to settle prior to trial, but both parties desired to have a trial. About two-thirds through the trial, my client asked to speak to me in the conference room outside the courtroom. That client broke down and cried at that point, saying that it was not possible to understand prior to trial how painful and destructive it would be. That client won the case, but after hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on attorneys, expert witnesses, and the litigation process, I think if that client could tell other clients anything it would be do whatever you possibly can to avoid the cost to the family relationship and the family estate that comes with trial.

The Collaborative Approach

The Law Office of S. Camille Milner strongly advocate the Collaborative Law Process. Through the Collaborative Process, the attorneys and other professionals assist the parties in resolving their cases by interest-based negotiation (positive/constructive) rather than position-based negotiation (negative/destructive) without the trauma or expense of “going to court.” This is accomplished by face-to-face meetings where we explore the parties’ interests, goals and options and in a very civilized approach and reach a “win-win” resolution for the parties.

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