Mississippi Supreme Court adopts Collaborative Law rules

• Advocates for the new rules believe the court system could benefit from the relief of crowded court dockets while providing an alternative to the adversarial litigation process.

In a 6-3 decision, the Mississippi Supreme Court recently approved new rules allowing family law disputes to be resolved without adversarial court proceedings before a chancellor.

Chief Justice Mike Randolph, Associate Justice James Maxwell, Associate Justice Dawn Beam, Associate Justice Robert Chamberlin, Associate Justice David Ishee and Associate Justice Kenny Griffis were among the judges approving the new rules.

Presiding Justice Jim Kitchens, Presiding Justice Leslie King, and Associate Justice Josiah Coleman objected.

According to the order filed July 26, the Mississippi Board of Bar Commissioners and Bar President created an Ad Hoc Committee on Collaborative Law of the Mississippi Bar to study Collaborative Law and to recommend if Collaborative Law is a viable, desirable option for Mississippi.

“After a two-year study, the Committee agreed upon a set of rules based on the Uniform Collaborative Laws, with modifications suited for Mississippi, and determined that, for now, the rules should be limited to family law,” the MSSC order states. “The Board unanimously adopted the proposed rules. The Bar now petitions this Court to approve them.”

The Court said the study committee, which was appointed in 2020, modeled its proposal on the nationally recognized Uniform Collaborative Law, an American Bar Association approved model.

More than 20 states, including the neighboring states of Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee, have now adopted the Uniform Collaborative Law, the Court notes.

Mississippi Bar General Counsel Adam Kilgore explained what is meant by Collaborative Law in the group’s August 2022 petition.

“Collaborative law is a voluntary, contractually based alternative dispute resolution process for parties who seek to negotiate a resolution to their matter rather than having a ruling imposed upon them by a court or arbitrator,” Kilgore said. “The parties agree that their lawyer’s representation is limited to representing them solely for the purposes of negotiation, and that if the matter is not settled, new lawyers will be retained if the matter proceeds to litigation or arbitration.”

Advocates for the new rules believe the court system could benefit from the relief of crowded court dockets while providing an alternative to the adversarial litigation process.

The Rules for Collaborative Law were adopted on July 26 by the state Supreme Court and are set to go into effect August 26. To read the new rules, click here.