Sampson Collaborative Law

04/28/2026

A single visionary’s note in 1990 became a global orchestra of hope.

Stu Webb's idea of Collaborative Practice, to redirect lawyers’ efforts constructively towards solutions, caught on. California pioneers like Pauline Tesler ran with, cultivated, and developed the idea. They helped launch the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP). Today, practice groups span the globe, the Uniform Collaborative Law Act supports the collaborative practice model in 28 US jurisdictions, and thousands of dedicated collaborative professionals are changing lives in a good way every day.

“Collaborative Law is reinvented wherever it takes root.” — Stu Webb

If you work in mediation, collaborative law, mental health, or financial planning, or are facing a family transition and want a peaceful, respectful path, the history of the collaborative movement may inspire you.

The full article (from the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals - FACP's Florida Collaborative Quarterly) is available at:

https://sampsoncollaborativelaw.com/collaborative-practice-from-a-root-note-to-a-movement

or

https://florida-collaborative-quarterly.ghost.io/collaborative-practice-from-a-root-note-to-a-movement/

04/27/2026

On April 8, 2026, the Florida First District Court of Appeal upheld dismissal in the United Methodist property case, reaffirming that courts must defer to the denomination’s highest internal ruling.

Litigation is public, expensive, and can damage the ministry and relationships the church exists to protect.

Consider another path: the Collaborative Law Process.

It brings local churches, denominational representatives, financial neutrals, and faith experts together to create private, flexible, lasting solutions. Issues suitable for the collaborative process include property disputes, disaffiliation, leadership transitions, facility use for weddings and funerals, or faith-involved parenting decisions.

Protect your congregation’s legacy.

Read the full blog with practical guidance, team roles, and real-world models at https://sampsoncollaborativelaw.com/church-property-disputes-collaborative-law-opportunities.

What has been your experience with church conflicts, whether in the courtroom or using other dispute resolution processes like the collaborative process?

Have you successfully used the collaborative process for disputes other than over family law matters? Share your experiences!

03/05/2026

Lasting dispute resolution flows from cooperation, not conflict.

When paths diverge in your relationship, choose dignity, control, and calm progress for your family.

Collaborative Divorce offers you a respectful, private, confidential, creative, flexible, efficient, goal-driven, child-focused, team approach towards agreement.

Your collaborative team can help you steer through legal complexities towards peaceful resolution.

* * *

In Florida, explore options for your family with: the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals or the Family Law Section of The Florida Bar.

Regional collaborative practice groups in Florida include:

◉ Brevard Collaborative Association
◉ Capital Collaborative Group(Tallahassee)
◉ Collaborative Divorce Professionals (Panama City/Northwest Florida)
◉ Central Florida Collaborative Divorce (Greater Orlando)
◉ Collaborative Family Law Group of Northeast Florida (Jacksonville)
◉ Collaborative Family Law Institute (Miami)
◉ Collaborative Family Law Professionals of South Florida (Fort Lauderdale)
◉ COLLABORATIVE LAW PROFESSIONALS ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL FLORIDA INC (Lakeland)
◉ Collaborative Professionals of Southwest Florida (Fort Myers)
◉ Next Generation Divorce (Tampa Bay)
◉ North Central Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals (Gainesville)
◉ PBACP, Palm Beach Academy of Collaborative Professionals, Inc.
◉ Sarasota Collaborative
◉ Choose Collaborative (South Palm Beach County)
◉ Tampa Bay Academy of Collaborative Professionals
◉ Hispano Collaborative Professionals - HCP

For resources about the collaborative process and professionals in your area, please visit the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP).

02/09/2026

When you’re facing divorce, uncertainty can be the hardest part. This free online workshop is designed to help you understand your divorce options clearly and realistically, with guidance from a lawyer, a mental health professional, and a financial expert. No sales pitch. Just straightforward information to help you decide what’s right for you.
Register at www.DivorceOptionsFlorida.com

12/16/2025

🔗 Contract Power in Collaborative Family Law

🤝 Imagine Solutions, Not Pain Points
* Collaborative teams help craft unique support agreements.
* Contract to cover post-graduation medical expenses.
* Enable extended education funding.

🎓 Provide for Education through Contracts
* Extend support for a child's education, including tuition and housing.
* Provide for books, study programs abroad, and more.

💔 Support Families Beyond Legal Constraints
* Couples may agree alimony will continue post-remarriage.
* Provide for support of an adult dependent to continue, even after a parent's passing.

💡 Adaptable Custody Agreements
* Reshape custody and timesharing based on life events certain to occur.
* Contract for flexible and tailored parenting solutions.

📜 Draw on Freedom to Contract:
* Blend legal foundations with innovative solutions.
* Foster collaborative, customized resolutions.

States, public policy, and the Uniform Collaborative Law Act encourage people to use their power to contract to settle disputes. The collaborative environment allows them and their professional team to direct their contract power constructively.

This freedom expands choices available to people who choose the collaborative process. Collaborative teams invite and encourage every member to imagine solutions beyond outcomes courts could order, and to commit to them in contracts.

By selecting among imagined solutions and expressing them in contracts, participants can achieve resolutions a judge, constrained by statutes, case precedent, and rules of procedure and evidence, couldn’t otherwise impose.

Read more:

Harness Collaborative Contract Power!
https://lnkd.in/ew2xe5rg

FAQs about Collaborative Divorce
https://lnkd.in/eS92Snrt

Overview of the Collaborative Divorce process in Florida
https://lnkd.in/eZnh2dG6

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Learn more about Florida divorce options at the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals - FACP or the Family Law Section of The Florida Bar. For more resources about the collaborative process and professionals in your area, please visit the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP) or, for civil matters, the Global Collaborative Law Council.

Photo by Ali Ansari on Unsplash.

🌟

12/03/2025

Many parents of children with special needs know turning 18 doesn’t automatically mean independence.

Florida law recognizes this reality. Section 61.1255, Florida Statutes provides a pathway for continued support of dependent adult children with disabilities.

Key factors judges consider:

✯ Your dependent adult child’s income and assets;

✯ Current and future needs of your child directly related to your child's mental or physical incapacity and the substantial care and personal supervision directly required by or related to that incapacity;

✯ Whether you, the other parent, or another person pays for or will pay for the care or supervision of your child or provides or will provide substantial care or personal supervision to your child himself or herself;

✯ The financial resources available to you and the other parent to support, care, and supervise your child;

✯ Any other financial resources, other resources, or programs available for the support, care, and supervision of your child;

✯ Any state or federal programs and benefits your dependent adult child is receiving or may receive due to reaching the age of majority; and

✯ The effect court-ordered support would have on your dependent adult child’s eligibility for such state or federal programs and benefits.

Proactive planning — ideally before age 18 — can make all the difference. Collaborative divorce and family law processes allow parents of kids with special needs to work together with allied professionals (special education advocates, trust attorneys, therapists, and benefits experts) to build sustainable, flexible plans.

For excellent additional resources in Florida, contact Catherine E. Davey at Davey Law Group, P.A., Natalie Baird-King, Sarah E. Kay of King Kay Solutions LLC, Philip Schipani of Schipani Law Group, P.A., or Alison Lehan Allman of Special Education Law and Advocacy.

Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash.

11/18/2025

Play with scenarios using this free Florida Durational Alimony Calculator.

11/18/2025

Alimony Calculator

10/28/2025

Read analysis and updated statistics on Florida Collaborative Divorce, its success rate, duration, cost, and demographics in the Fall 2025 issue of the Family Law Commentator (Vol XLV, Issue 1), published by the Family Law Section of The Florida Bar.

https://familylawfla.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Family-Law-Section-Commentator-Issue-1-web-_FINAL.pdf

The data come from survey responses the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals - FACP collected between 2014 and mid-2024 for 299 collaborative matters.

Type:
‣ 93% of collaborative matters were divorce.
‣ 80% of collaborative matters included minor or dependent children.

Success:
‣ 85.1% concluded with full resolution of all issues
‣ 2.1% concluded with partial resolution on some but not all issues
‣ 11.4% terminated with no resolution

Time:
‣ 90.7% concluded in 12 months or less
‣ 60% concluded in 6 months or less
‣ 29.2% concluded in 3 months or less

Cost:
[217 survey responses where neither lawyer was representing a client pro bono]

Total cost to the couple:
‣ 11% of collaborative cases in FL cost $20,000 or less.
‣ 13% of collaborative cases in FL cost $20,001 to $30,000.
‣ 18% of collaborative cases in FL cost $30,001 to $40,000.
‣ 13% of collaborative cases in FL cost $40,001 to $50,000.
‣ 19% of collaborative cases in FL cost $50,001 to $75,000.
‣ 10% of collaborative cases in FL cost $75,001 to $100,000.
‣ 15% of collaborative cases in FL cost $100,001 or more.

Grouped differently:
‣ 24% cost $30,000 or less.
‣ 55% cost $50,000 or less.
‣ 29% cost between $50,001 - $100,000.

Team:
‣ Of the matters for which a collaborative professional team member responded to the survey, 92% included a financial professional.
‣ Of the matters for which a collaborative professional team member responded to the survey, 84% included a neutral facilitator.

Age:
‣ 23% of the collaborating clients were 40 years old or younger.
‣ 39% were between 41 and 50.
‣ 26% were between 51 and 60.
‣ 11% were 61 or older.

Special thanks to Adam B. Cordover of Family Diplomacy: A Collaborative Law Firm and Randy Heller, PhD, Interdisciplinary Collaborative Facilitator for their work.

To learn if Collaborative Divorce may be a good fit for your family, visit https://lnkd.in/enpHkhWp.

Photo by Phạm Mi on Unsplash.

10/21/2025

Free Florida Family law case search tool. Current through October 20, 2025.

🔗https://lnkd.in/et6bvPD

🐬 Let fresh case holdings flow in and replenish your legal understanding.

Plug keywords into the search tool. Get case summaries and links to cases in Google Scholar.
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Highlights in the last several months include:

Loconto (5/28/25): Court mandates maximum durational alimony for a blind, dependent ex-wife after a long marriage.

Lawler (6/4/25): Upheld dad’s temporary relocation to South Carolina with children.

Mahmoud v. Taylor (6/27/25): US Supreme Court rules schools burden parents' rights by mandating gender lessons without opt-outs.

Cuevas (7/3/25): Trial court erred in denying husband's petition to disestablish paternity of two children.

Flaim (7/9/25): Escrow refund from home sale must be split equally as net proceeds per agreement.

Zargari (7/9/25): Reversed alimony award for failing to consider ex-wife's part-time airline earnings.

JEJ v. SAB (7/11/25): Exclude pass-through income for taxes from calculations in child support disputes.

Wallace (7/23/25): Reversed parenting plan that ignored husband's prior domestic violence conviction entirely.

Goya v. Hayashida (8/13/25): Family property ruled nonmarital; wife's brief cited fake AI-generated cases.

Maradona v. Villafañe (9/10/25): Affirmed a judgment against an ex-husband who claimed post-divorce that his ex-wife hid Miami properties.

Secrist (9/22/25): Amended alimony statute applies to cases pending when changes took effect.

Golubtsova v. Budaev (9/24/25): Reversed summary judgment over disputed fraudulent electronic signature on quitclaim deed.

Dive in. Try your own free searches.

Examples:

↠ Kaaa
↠ Relocation
↠ special needs
↠ durational alimony
↠ Zold
↠ prospective based analysis
↠ modification
↠ valuation
↠ cyberstalking
↠ contempt
↠ abuse of discretion
↠ charging lien
↠ life insurance
↠ homestead
↠ Casto
↠ good fortune
↠ psychological evaluation
↠ 696 so. 2d 697
↠ Oct 2025
↠ Supreme Court of Florida

For advice on Florida family law, consult with a member of the Family Law Section of The Florida Bar.

For a Florida Collaborative Professional, visit the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals - FACP.

Send a message to learn more