Collaborative Law and Separating Together

Coming together to go your separate ways...

Collaborative law is a process that uses specially trained attorneys to assist families with the emotional, financial, and legal aspects of separation, divorce, and co-parenting children. This team approach may involve the efforts and expertise of adult and family counselors, financial specialists and attorneys.

Collaborative law is a set of voluntary ground rules entered into by separating/divorcing couples and their specially trained attorneys. While the details vary from collaborative lawyer to collaborative lawyer, the central idea is that the lawyers agree in advance they will not take the case to trial.

Collaborative law minimizes or eliminates the negative consequences of adversarial litigation in the family arena by:

• avoiding litigation and lawsuits
• coordinating problem solving
• minimizing conflict between separating/divorcing individuals
• providing legal representation and emotional support of each individual
• assisting couples in making sound and thoughtful decisions about the future for themselves and their children
• minimizing the expense of divorce
• addressing short-term and long-term financial concerns
• jointly retaining experts as needed (for example, financial specialists and child specialists)
• protects families from unnecessary resource depletion

Studies show that a collaborative settlement is reached faster than other forms of negotiation and greatly reduces the emotional trauma families experience in divorce, especially children.

Additional information about collaborative law may be found at Separating Together.

While collaborative divorce is less expensive than going to court, it is not the only option. Other alternative dispute resolution methods for separating/divorcing couples that are time- and cost-effective include mediation, arbitration, and med-arb or arb-med.

Settling Your Divorce Doesn’t Have To Be A Trial.

All couples regardless of marital status or sexual orientation are welcome to participate in this collaborative process.