Once financial disclosure has been made, the parties and their lawyers, and sometimes a financial specialist, begin exploring options for settlement. If necessary, the lawyers will get expert opinions on the current market value of any property, businesses, artwork, collections, and other assets that can be difficult to value. In collaborative negotiation, the parties will usually retain a valuator or appraiser together. Discussions continue until the parties reach a resolution that meets their most important needs.
Because all We've said a few times that collaborative processes are private and confidential. This includes both discussions in the negotiation process — whether those communications occur in meetings between the parties and their lawyers or in correspondence by mail and email — and the documents and information that are exchanged for the purposes of those discussions. The reason why these dicsussions and documents are private is to allow everyone to be as honest and as creative as possible in exploring options for settlement. Each party needs to be able to make settlement proposals and admissions without worrying that their statements will be held against them in the event the process goes off the rails and winds up being resolved in court. Because collaborative negotiation is confidential, brainstorming discussions to identify options for settlement are comprehensivetend to involve some surprisingly candid, transparent and can be very creative and very honestimaginative brainstorming, even when the parties are dealing with very difficult subjects like substance use and abuse, physical and mental health challenges, and parenting deficits. The settlements that result from collaborative negotiation are usually equally creative, sometimes in ways that are not possible through processes like arbitration and litigation.
You may want to have a look at the discussion of [[Family Law Mediation#Tips for successful mediation|tips for successful mediation]] in the [[Family Law Mediation|Mediation]] section later in this chapter. It has information about communication skills that can be helpful during collaborative processes.