Divorce can easily turn in to a contentious battle between spouses, but it doesn’t have to be an all-out fight. Especially if you have children or if you prioritize keeping your costs low, removing some of the contention and acrimony from your divorce proceedings can help everyone involved.
Collaborative divorce is an increasingly popular option for couples who want to keep their divorce civil. Instead of fighting against each other, in a collaborative divorce, the two of you agree to work with one another.
How collaboration works in a divorce
Although you may not be happy in your marriage, you can both at least agree that divorce is the next logical step. In a collaborative divorce, you negotiate your own terms for everything from child custody and support to property division.
You use the agreements that you reach mutually to file for an uncontested divorce, thereby keeping your negotiations private and your divorce more affordable by reducing how much of it takes place in court.
You don’t have to sit down face-to-face to pursue a collaborative divorce
For some people, the idea of spending hours with their soon-to-be-ex is what stops them from seeking a collaborative divorce. They’d rather let their lawyers handle all of the communication.
Even if you decide to work with an outside party to facilitate your collaboration, you can still do so separately. Mediation and arbitration, sometimes used as part of collaborative divorce, don’t necessarily require that everybody sit down at the same time together. As long as you can agree on terms, you can sign an agreement that will then allow for an uncontested divorce filing.
Collaborative divorce helps preserve your dignity, your financial resources and your privacy during your divorce. An experienced attorney can help you.