The Collaborative Divorce Process
The collaborative divorce process is a more amicable solution than the traditional litigation-based divorce.
The traditional divorce process involving litigation is stressful not only for the parties involved but also for the other family members. Over time, creative legal solutions with the ability to simplify existing processes were developed. A collaborative divorce is an example of one such creative legal solution.
The best aspect of collaborative divorce is the placement of control in the hands of the spouses involved in the divorce. The core of this divorce process is based on the belief that the spouses, and not a judge, are the best people to make decisions about their life and future.
How Does a Collaborative Divorce Process Work?
Couples involved in a divorce come across different challenges. Some couples are able to come to an agreement easily while some find it difficult to find a common ground. In the latter case, couples find themselves surrounded by attorneys and court hearings. As a result, the emotional distress and expenses that couples face are severe.
There is another typical situation in a divorce where the divorcing couples have disagreements. But they are willing to settle for a middle ground in the best interests of the family. Collaborative divorce benefits such couples.
In such cases where the parties are amicable, a collaborative divorce process offers the couple an opportunity to reach a solution without going to court.
In a collaborative divorce process, couples work with a legal team typically comprising attorneys, a financial professional and CDF (Collaborative Divorce Facilitator). Divorcing couples reach an agreement on major issues such as children and finances with expert help from these members.
Collaborative divorce empowers divorcing couples to make well-informed decisions about the major aspects of their life without relying on a jury of strangers or a third-party mediator.
A significant aspect of collaborative divorce that makes it so popular is the shattering of the myth that divorce proceedings need to be hostile. In traditional divorce proceedings, there is a fight-to-win attitude that does not quite suit a divorce dispute.
The collaborative method replaces the hostile fight-to-win element with a more approachable and practical realize-and-resolve element. With an efficient collaborative divorce team, participants are able to create win-win solutions for issues affecting their future.
Responsibilities Of Team Members In A Collaborative Divorce
Couples part to a collaborative divorce process are assisted by a legal team comprising professionals from financial and legal backgrounds. In addition to the key members specified below, the legal team may consist of other experts upon the requirement of the parties involved.
Additional members can include a child specialist, accountant, appraiser, real estate expert, and an insurance professional.
The purpose of forming a team is to make the collaborative divorce as customized as possible for the couples. With customized information from relevant experts, the couples are in the best position to make sound decisions.
A collaborative divorce team typically consists of:
Attorneys Specializing in Collaborative Divorce
A lawyer skilled and experienced in a collaborative divorce process represents each individual in the divorce. The responsibility of each party’s lawyer is to help them identify his/ her needs, the well-being of which, are in mutual parties’ interests. The attorney of each spouse works toward bringing the maximum settlement possible through existing marital resources.
The attorney is responsible to make the needs and concerns of its respective party clear to the other members of the team. Trained attorneys encourage negotiations that work for the benefit of both the parties in both the present and the future.
Experienced attorneys work in partnership with their clients and the other team members to create an amicable environment. Attorneys ensure that spouses work together to discover a sustainable solution rather than winning at the expense of the other spouse’s needs.
A Financial Neutral
A financial neutral assists clients settle their financial issues. The professional assists clients in identifying and gathering documents principal to the collaborative divorce process. He/ she also helps clients analyze the financial information and understand its present and future impact.
A financial neutral develops real-time illustrations to project available financial information and educate clients and other members of the team about the financial impact of decisions. By doing so, the financial neutral motivates participants to think of creative solutions for an amicable resolution.
In case your financial assets need value assessments, a financial neutral can help you achieve a fair and unbiased assessment by a professional.
With a financial neutral, the chances of both spouses presenting all their financial information without any secrecy increase. This transparency prevents expensive court proceedings to reveal and gather required financial information.
A Collaborative Divorce Facilitator (CDF)
A CDF is often a mental health professional. He/ she works with both parties to identify and contain emotional issues that can otherwise obstruct the collaborative process from progress. Presence of a CDF helps clients put across their concerns clearly and constructively. With a CDF, clients find it easier to reach a practical solution.
The significance of a CDF is maximized in spousal divorces involving children. An experienced CDF assists the parents in working towards solutions that are in the best interests of the children. Solutions revolve around issues such as parental custody, decision-making rights, and financial responsibilities.
The planning developed by the CDF in consultation with the parents, is submitted to the court. This plan is usually made permanent by court.
Steps in the Collaborative Divorce Process
A collaborative divorce process consists of the following key steps:
Hiring an Attorney
A collaborative divorce begins with both parties choosing their own divorce attorneys. It helps to choose attorneys specializing in collaborative divorce. The lawyer should believe in a mediation- and negotiation-based approach to resolving issues arising from a divorce.
A lawyer that is skilled at aggressively pursuing only his/ her client’s interests may be suited for a courtroom proceeding but not a collaborative divorce process.
2. Meeting your Attorney in Private
Meet your lawyer in private without your spouse or his/ her attorney in presence. Talk to your lawyer about your concerns. Be clear about the compromises you can and cannot make. Discuss all your priorities with your lawyer before the collaborative process begins. With your concerns, goals and needs clear, your lawyer can negotiate accordingly.
3. Signing a Non-Litigation Agreement
You meet your spouse’s attorney in the presence of your spouse and your attorney. Meetings comprising these four key members are conducted regularly till the desired settlement is reached.
These meetings also include other key members of a collaborative divorce process, including the CDF and the Financial Neutral. Other team members such as the child custody experts, value appraisers, accountants, and others are included as per your decisions.
The next key step in the process is spouses agreeing to the condition that they would not pursue a litigation till the collaborative divorce process is in progress. The spouses and their respective lawyers make such an agreement in writing before proceeding to the next phase of the process.
In case a litigation is already in process, the lawyers sign the agreement and withdraw from the case till the completion of the collaborative divorce process.
Each couple also agrees to provide all relevant financial and marital information to the team members as required, without any secrecy. The spouses also agree to make maximum efforts to reach the best solution.
4. Negotiating with the Assistance of Mediators
If you are unable to reach an agreement on certain issues, then experts such as mediators arrive onboard. Licensed mediation practitioners or CDFs lead the couples to maintain focus on subjects they are most concerned about. CDFs help clients make decisions without allowing emotions deviate the discussions.
Mediators make couples see the bigger picture and the benefits of settling for a winning middle ground in areas where the desired solution is not entirely possible.
5. Bringing together a Team
A team of attorneys representing the clients, a CDF, and a Financial Neutral, is formed to start the collaborative divorce process. More experts may come onboard depending on the couple’s needs.
6. The Beginning of Negotiations
You start to discuss the different aspects of your divorce settlement with your spouse and the respective attorney, in the presence of your attorney and the team. All aspects of concern, from asset and debt-sharing to child custody, are discussed.
Lawyers ensure that all client concerns are addressed. The CDF helps the couple to overcome emotional issues such as past hurts, and feelings of betrayal and anger, and move beyond. Access to relevant experts empowers the couple with required information for decision-making.
With steady guidance on legal, financial, child-related, emotional, and all other aspects of a divorce, the couple negotiates in a positive and productive environment.
7. Filing Divorce in Court
Negotiations stop once you reach an agreement with your spouse on all matters of concern. Your decisions and agreements are put in a written format and converted into legally enforceable documents.
Your attorneys will file a case in court and schedule a date for the final hearing. Your spouse and the attorneys will accompany you on the designated day of final hearing. Attorneys will submit legal-binding documents specifying your agreements. The judge may review the documents before finalizing agreements specified therein. The divorce is then finalized.
Benefits of a Collaborative Divorce
The solutions presented during a collaborative divorce process may not be the ideal ones that you or your spouse expected. But the process prevents your spouse and you from getting stuck in the problem phase and move toward the more productive resolution stage.
Here are some reasons why a collaborative divorce process is often preferred by couples over a standard litigation:
Reduces Costs of Litigation
A collaborative divorce is less expensive than a litigation. Court proceedings demand money, time and efforts of couples and their attorneys. In addition to lawyer fees, you have to spend for court costs.
A collaborative divorce process, even if it involves multiple negotiation sessions, costs lesser than a litigation.
Increases your Control over the Process
Unlike a litigation where your interests may or may not be addressed, a collaborative approach strictly works toward making your needs a reality. You may not exactly get what you want, but you can be sure that the settlement you are getting is your own decision. It is not your spouse, your attorney, or a judge that decides what is best for you. You alone decide what is best for you.
Provides Privacy
Unlike a public courtroom where proceedings may not be as private as you like, a collaborative approach preserves the confidentiality of your divorce discussions. You discuss and decide in a private setting with only your spouse and legal team present.
Facilitates Meaningful and Respectful Communication
Often, in a litigation, divorcing spouses cease to talk to each other. The entire proceedings are taken over by lawyers and they communicate on behalf of the spouses. Such indirect communication involving only the lawyers of both parties may not bring the real issues forward.
If the lawyers are intent on imposing their own selfish intentions, the results can be disastrous and not in the complete interests of either couple or the family.
In a collaborative divorce process, lawyers speak in the presence of the spouses. The process begins with the objective to listen and understand to each party’s concerns and address them.
Communication between spouses is direct, deep and cordial, which maximizes the power of communication.
Team Presence Maximizes Chances of an Amicable Settlement
A collaborative divorce process is a team effort. Lawyers, financial neutral and the CDF, work
together, to find the best solutions that are in the interests of both the parties.
This does not mean that the concerns of either party is compromised, as it can happen in a litigation.
The lawyer of each party keeps the client well-informed. Each spouse makes, or agrees to, a decision fully knowing the consequences of doing so and not doing so.
In a litigation-powered settlement process, a hostile atmosphere often prevails, which can spill over to the decisions that spouse make. The collaborative approach prevents such negative atmosphere and removes bitterness often associated with divorce settlement proceedings.
Follows a Holistic Approach
In litigation, only the legal aspects of a divorce are focused upon. Other vital issues such as the concerns of the spouses and their own well-being take a backseat.
In a collaborative model, a modern realistic approach is prioritized. Spouses accept that pursuing their interests is hard work and are willing to work hard. They learn to face and handle, with experts’ help, all emotions associated with the process.
In a collaborative approach, couples realize that the goal is not to grab as much money as possible or achieve sole control over their children’s welfare. The couple works together to identify the other’s objectives and reach a solution that makes maximum allowance for the needs of both.
A collaborative approach makes an amicable solution possible without losing the integrity of neither the process nor the participants. The process gives the spouses a much-needed closure and the conviction that they can their lives afresh without any remnant bitterness from the divorce.
Less Stressful for all Involved
Since the collaborative approach keeps away the fight-and-win approach of a court proceeding, negotiations are more amicable. As the aggressive tone is subdued, stress on all parties involved, including the couples, their children and other family members, is reduced.
Contact Conscious Family Firm For Help Today!
In Boulder, Colorado, a collaborative divorce has a high success rate. An entire team of professionals works to reach a fair and reasonable settlement, motivating the couple to do so too. The chances of couples achieving satisfactory goals in a reasonably short time is enormously increased.
Reach the best collaborative divorce attorneys in Boulder, Colorado with an excellent legal team to realize your dream life after a divorce.