The Process
What is Collaborative Law and How Can it Benefit You?
Terminating a marriage is not easy. Everyone has heard the horror stories about divorce litigation. Rather than allowing a stranger (whether a judge or a magistrate) make the decisions that will impact your family now and into the future, the collaborative process offers you the ability to make those decisions and maintain control of your case.
Collaborative law gives people an effective way to resolve their divorce case with the guidance of attorneys who have received training in the art of principled negotiation. The collaborative process relies on the honesty, cooperation, and integrity of the parties and the complete and open sharing of all information towards the goal of resolution of all of the issues. Collaborative law enables parties to minimize the potential negative economic, social, and emotional consequences involved when terminating a marriage.
Instead of rushing to the courthouse, contact one of our attorneys at Win Win Divorce to discuss the alternatives to litigation. You do have choices.
An Overview of the Collaborative Process
Each family is unique and that means each family’s process will be unique, however, once each of the parties has retained his/her collaboratively trained attorney, the process that our local academy normally follows is:
- Each client meets with one of our academy’s trained family coaches for an initial conference to assess suitability of the collaborative process
- Both attorneys and both clients sign the Collaborative Family Law Participation Agreement after the parties decide they would like to proceed
- Clients and their attorneys meet in four-way sessions to work toward agreements on all issues that must be decided. These sessions will:
- Identify the goals of each client
- Gather information for all to share
- Generate options after all necessary information is gathered
- Work toward resolutions that address the client’s goals
- Sessions may include neutral professionals (a family coach, a neutral financial professional, etc.) in sessions who can help clarify and evaluate property division, parenting allocation, and support issues for the clients
- Each session will have an agenda to follow and minutes (maybe with some assignments to complete to keep the sessions productive and timely)
- Agreements can be made (temporary ones in order to stabilize daily living or binding agreements that will become final)
- Once all issues are resolved, the attorneys will draft the requisite documents that are required by the Court to finalize the process and include the clients’ agreements regarding property division, parenting allocation, and support
Note: The duration and number of sessions will depend on the number of issues, the unique needs and circumstances of the people involved, the availability of the clients and attorneys, and the timeliness of clients getting the necessary information to the team.
Divorce is far more than legal paperwork. It’s an emotional, financial, and often spiritual transition that happens to include a legal component. Just as a marriage is much more than a license, a divorce is much more than a judge’s signature on a decree.