Focus on the Future

What is Collaborative Divorce?

Collaborative Divorce is a process in which opposing parties efficiently resolve their legal disputes with a team comprised of attorneys, mental health professionals, divorce coaches, financial planners, and child specialists. Only two collaborative divorce attorneys are actually needed; however, the involvement of more professionals often improves a case’s comprehensiveness and efficiency. Regardless of the number of additional team members, both parties must hire collaborative divorce attorneys, with one attorney residing per party. These attorneys contractually agree to involve no litigation in their proceedings. Centered on this commitment between parties, collaborative divorce ensures that neither party will supercede a decision using the court system. Instead, it enables both parties to equally voice their needs and expectations until they mutually reach a suitable agreement. Moreover, the attorneys and various other professionals take a step back, placing more control in the hands of the clients. By introducing a relationship of mutual respect with clients rather than one of leadership, collaborative lawyers allow clients to confidently take an active and participatory role in the brainstorming of options and outcomes, decision making, and resolution of critical issues affecting their own lives.

What are some benefits to Collaborative Divorce?

1. Collaborative divorce fosters a safe and respectful environment, enabling it to build effective client-client and client-attorney communication and provide clients with the confidence to settle their disputes without resorting to litigation.

2. Constructive four way conferences, used in collaborative divorce, reduce the clients’ confusion, uncertainty, and anger, often generated by the traditional divorce process. These four way conferences provide clients with an opportunity for them to civilly discuss and sort out the logistics of their divorce.

3. Empowered, clients communicate their ideas more calmly and effectively through listening and creative problem solving. Clients, having honed their communication and negotiation skills, leave with an ability to diplomatically resolve future conflicts.

4.Collaborative divorce attorneys positively impact the communication between clients by promoting full disclosure and respect during sessions. By encouraging an open exchange of ideas and voluntary production of financial documents, clients and their attorneys are more likely to develop win-win solutions to the divorcing clients’ issues of child custody, property division, and support.

5. The collaborative divorce process can then also assist the clients in fully identifying and fulfilling the needs of their children. Thus, collaborative divorce allows not only for clients’ development of effective communication skills, but also the skills to successfully meet life’s challenges as a single parent. As a result, it strengthens family relationships, helping divorces end with mutual client satisfaction.

6. Most importantly, collaborative divorce enables clients to create results that they may not be able to obtain in the traditional court setting.

United States. The International Academy of Collaborative Professionals. Collaborative Practice. 6 July 2005.

Frequently Asked Questions About Collaborative Divorce

Q: How can I know if Collaborative Divorce is the best choice for me?

A: If you answer yes to the majority of the following questions, collaborative divorce could be the right choice for you.

1. Do you want a civilized, respectful resolution to your divorce?

2. Do you want to maintain a committed co-parenting relationship with your spouse in order to make the best co-parenting decisions for your children in the future?

3. Moreover, do you want to protect your children from the destructive effects associated with litigation?

4. Are you willing to communicate with your spouse calmly and honestly in order to create the best resolution that is satisfying to everyone?

5. Would you rather use your intelligence and creativity to seek mutually beneficial resolution of property distribution, suppoty and custody issues than seek revenge?

7. Would you like to personally handle your divorce rather than place important decisions such as financial or child arrangements in the hands of a stranger?

8. Do you dislike the rigidity of court resolved resolutions and would you like to try creating a more flexible solutions to issues of divorce?

9. Do you and your spouse have mutual friends or family that you would like to stay connected with?

10. Do you place equal value on physical health, emotional health and financial health?

Q: How is Collaborative Divorce different than the traditional divorce process?

A: Unlike the adverse confrontations and endless litigation common in conventional divorce, collaborative divorce offers a more civil, cost-effective, and efficient alternative. The primary difference is that in collaborative divorce, both spouses are actively involved with creating the dimensions of their divorce whereas the resolutions and settlements associated with traditional divorce are far more rigid as much of the aspects are decided by litigators or judges. Collaborative divorce enables clients to create results that they would not be able to obtain in the traditional court setting. Other major differences are the respectful and honest atmosphere of four way meetings, which provide a safe haven for clients to voice their concerns and opinions, the attention to a fair resolution satisfying to both clients, and the general belief that clients are capable and willing to resolve their legal dispute without resorting to litigation.

Q: What if one of the parties is secretly using collaborative divorce in order to gain information, advantage, or leverage over the other party? Wouldn’t open honestly and full disclosure work against the innocent spouse?

A: It is fairly apparent if a party is misusing the information gained during collaborative divorces’ four way meetings. If the opposing party does not recognize the breech of good faith, the dishonest party’s collaborative divorce attorney should most definitely notice deceptive behavior, lack of follow through on meeting decisions, and an unwillingness to resolve the divorce on the part of his or her client. If and when a collaborative divorce attorney suspects that his or her client is acting in bad faith, that attorney must withdraw or terminate the collaborative process, as dictated by the collaborative retainer and participation agreements contractually agreed upon in the process’s earliest stage. If a collaborative divorce attorney suspects that both the opposing party and attorney are not trustworthy, that attorney would recommend that his or her client trade the collaborative process for the traditional litigation model

Q: How do I know whether it is safe for me to work in the Collaborative Divorce process? Should I still engage in collaborative divorce if I do not trust my spouse to participate honestly in collaborative meetings because of his/her past with lying during our marriage?

A: Regardless of whether you are using the collaborative divorce process or the conventional litigation process, you cannot ever be completely certain of whether the opposing party is concealing or hiding his or her assets. If you have reservations about engaging in collaborative law, you should ask yourself whether your partner would be dishonest about income taxes, assets, or debts. If you think he or she would, maybe you should reconsider this option. However, you should remember that your husband/wife will most likely have the same deep seeded attributes regardless of whether the divorce proceedings are collaborative or adversarial and that even with a dishonest spouse, the collaborative setup still might foster a better outcome than the costly and highly confrontational court setting.

Q: How long will my divorce take using collaborative law?

A: The collaborative divorce process is flexible. Most clients require from three to seven four way meetings to resolve their issues, give or take several sessions. Spacing between meetings also may vary. After each issue has been resolved, the collaborative divorce lawyers will complete the necessary paperwork for your divorce.

Q: How expensive is collaborative law? How does this cost compare with the cost of litigation?

A: Collaborative divorce lawyers generally charge at an hourly rate, which will vary with location and experience of the lawyer. Every case is different as you and your partner could have already reached agreements on many of the aspects of your divorce, or you may be just beginning to discuss them. Because of this differential, there is no set flat fee for collaborative representation. However, generally, collaborative law representation will cost less than being represented by an attorney to takes your case to the traditional court setting.

Transition from Elder Law to Collaborative Divorce

Q: How does Elder Law and Estate Planning relate to Collaborative Divorce?

A: Many of the skills required of an Elder Law attorney are those required to deal with the outcomes of divorce. The production of Wills, Health Care Proxys, Durable Power of Attorneys the transfer of property and Asset Preservation Plans are as much essential to the newly divorced as they are to the elderly and married couples.. In most marriages, the spouses nominate one another as each other’s legal representative in case of death, disability, or inability to make health care decisions, and in many marriages, one spouse’s assets and property are left entirely to the other. Therefore, it is imperative that documents, such as the ones listed above, be revisited in the event of divorce. With a background in Estate Planning, Wills, Health Care Agent Designations, and Durable Power of Attorneys, we possess the knowledge, experience, and ability to create sound Estate and Asset Preservation Plans for a divorcing spouse.

We have helped many people in your situation, and we can help you.

Please contact New York state collaborative divorce lawyer Linnea Levine today. For immediate assistance call us at 203-557-0850 or 914-481-5555.

We welcome clients in Fairfield County, CT and Westchester County, NY, including Stamford, Harrison, White Plains, Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien, Westport, Bedford, Katonah, New Rochelle and Scarsdale.