Frequently Asked Questions:
What is Collaborative Divorce?
Collaborative Divorce is a no-court alternative to a traditional litigated divorce. In the Collaborative process, each spouse has a Collaboratively trained lawyer and everyone (both spouses and both lawyers) signs a written agreement not to take the case to court.
Collaborative lawyers have specific training in the Collaborative process, which focuses on reaching settlements out of court by looking to the couple's needs and interests (problem solving) rather than trying to "win" the case.
In contrast to traditional litigated divorces, spouses who chose to participate in the Collaborative process to obtain a divorce often report increased communication and understanding between spouses by the end of the process.
The Collaborative Divorce process is especially helpful for couples who have children together and therefore need to maintain a positive relationship with their spouse during and after the divorce in order to be able to co-parent their children.
How is Collaborative Divorce different from a traditional litigated divorce?
In a traditional litigated divorce, one party serves the other with legal documents that ask for everything a court could possibly award them. The other party responds with a counter-suit, asking for the similar awards from the court. Through their attorneys, both parties file their respective documents and then wait for a series of court hearings to move their case forward over a period of months or possibly years.
Attorneys, for the most part, have resisted the difficult work of meeting with couples to do the conflict resolution that focuses on the future success for the entire family. Negotiation in a traditional litigated divorce is usually done exclusively through the parties’ respective attorneys – a process that is often hostile, inefficient, and filled with “win-lose” proposals. Typically, the proposals largely ignore the couples' underlying concerns and instead focus on "winning" the lawsuit.
In contrast, Collaborative Divorce brings couples and their attorneys together before either party is even served with divorce papers. The court is not involved while the parties structure a mutually acceptable written resolution of all issues to submit to the court for approval as a final divorce decree.
What is a "coach"?
In the Collaborative Divorce process, couples typically benefit from using a coach. A coach is a mental health professional such as a therapist, that helps the couple to focus on improving communication between each other, address parenting concerns, and provide needed support during settlement discussions.
