Divorce is painful. It represents the failure of a marriage. And it places stress on everyone from the husband and the wife to their children. A long, drawn-out and bitter divorce battle helps no one. Fortunately, couples who work with a collaborative divorce attorney can make the divorce process a little less painful.
In a traditional divorce, settlements handed down by judges who do not personally know the family members or their unique situations often do not seem fair to either party in the dispute. This often results in one-sided judgments or lopsided financial awards.
However, if both parties agree, there is a way that couples can avoid some of these problems. A collaborative divorce attorney can help divorcing parties reach compromises that satisfy everyone in a case. Couples interested in working with a collaborative divorce attorney should start their search by contacting The American Bar Association, which maintains a list of such professionals.
When hiring these attorneys, both parties agree to work together to reach settlements regarding child custody and the divvying up of assets that everyone agrees are fair. Parties working with a collaborative divorce attorney consider both their own personal needs and their family goals to reach binding decisions that do not unfairly favor one party over the other.
Collaborative attorneys also call in outside experts to help resolve cases. These include such professionals as financial planners, child therapists and other consultants. It?s all part of the effort to help the divorcing couple determine the best resolution for themselves and their children.
Couples who turn to the services of collaborative divorce attorneys are usually still on good enough terms with each other to realize that they themselves are in the best position to make the smartest decisions for their well being of their children. They are also the ones best able to decide sometimes tricky financial matters.
To reach successful conclusions, collaborative divorces require that everyone involved in them follow the same rules. Each member of the divorcing couple, for example, is required to accurately share their financial information. Couples must also agree to work in good faith, and not simply toward a goal of getting everything they want. Finally, both sides must agree to let outside experts participate in their cases.
Couples should understand, though, that if a case does not reach a resolution agreed to by both parties, the collaborative divorce attorneys must leave the case. This requires that new lawyers be hired. Unfortunately, this starts the entire settlement process over again.
A collaborative divorce attorney is not for every couple seeking a divorce. Those couples involved in a particularly acrimonious dispute, for instance, would probably not be able to work together closely enough to make such attorneys a wise investment. However, in the right cases, collaborative divorce attorneys can help make a divorce case proceed as smoothly as possible.
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