The ENC is a 90 minute informational meeting unique to your family’s needs (i.e., you can ask any questions you like in the meeting and ranges of options for the law and process are discussed, as well as contacts to professionals who can help with anything you cannot agree between yourselves, and contacts to who can help write up your legal agreement). Every family is unique and some families need more professionals than others, but the choice is the family’s to make.
- Each couple has the power to make all of the choices themselves, there is no pressure to make decisions in the ENC. The ENC is not legal advice. There is no written report from the ENC, it is up to each couple to take the information from the ENC and decide for themselves what they want for their separation.
- The information in the ENC is used to help couples be organised and to plan as much as they can simply and effectively between themselves.
- Early Neutral Consultation can be the best first step for couples, but there are no magic solutions, it is about empowering couples with information so they can stay out of court if possible. The alternative is to go to other professionals first (such as a lawyer, mediator, counsellor, etc) without getting the information first in the ENC.