Divorces can involve lawyers, court dates and a lot of time and money. Couples who agree on most things may just need some help with the divorce papers. In Virginia, couples tend to be somewhere in the middle. Many disagreements between people come from property division, alimony support and child custody. A collaborative divorce procedure may help couples avoid going to court to settle their issues.
What is a collaborative divorce?
Under family law, many couples settle disputes in court, but the collaborative divorce procedure allows couples to solve their issues through negotiations. Both parties should agree not to litigate before starting a collaborative divorce procedure, and in fact their attorneys are required to withdraw if the case ends up going to trial.
What are the benefits of using a collaborative divorce?
A collaborative divorce procedure offers multiple benefits that the court process doesn’t. People find the informal setting useful for problem-solving their issues. Both parties save time and money by not going through the court process. The couple can negotiate results that work for them in an honest exchange of information. Both parties can even decide how to handle post-settlement disputes during the process.
What is the collaborative law process?
The collaborative divorce process has pretty straightforward steps. When choosing an attorney, each person should make sure they understand the mediation and negotiation process. Both parties and attorneys must sign a no-court agreement to keep the divorce out of court. Each party should meet with their attorneys separately to decide what they want out of the divorce. The attorneys should know the person’s limits to keep the process running smoothly.
After the initial setup, the parties should have four-way meetings regularly. Collaborative divorces may involve other professions such as child psychologists and accountants. All specialists need to be party-neutral to keep the negotiations running smoothly.