A Newly Revisited Question: What is Collaborative Law?

One of the most important facets of the Collaborative Divorce Texas’ mission is to educate the public on the benefits of collaborative law, for those weighing the difficult decision to divorce. With that in mind, we’ve been working over the past few months to develop a new series of statements, looking for the best way to state why we’re so committed to the Collaborative Law process.

Here is, as we see it, the essence of collaborative law and its advantages over traditional courtroom divorce, in a single paragraph:

Collaborative law provides divorcing couples an innovative, cost-effective alternative to a traditional courtroom divorce. It provides the convenience, privacy and autonomy to facilitate a settlement tailored to the unique needs and situation of the divorcing couple and their family. It also allows financial and mental health professionals familiar with the collaborative law process to help divorcing couples come to agreement. Collaborative law seeks solutions allowing each person impacted by a divorce – especially children – to have the best post-divorce lives possible.

And, to further articulate what Collaborative Law is about, we’ve developed explanations of its best features:

It’s Cost-Conscious

Collaborative law is a more cost-effective process than a traditional divorce, structured so divorcing couples work with collaborative professionals to resolve financial, parenting, and other pertinent issues. In the collaborative process, couples invest directly in solutions rather than costly litigation.

It’s Personalized

In collaborative law, control isn’t ceded to a judge unfamiliar with a family’s unique circumstances. Instead, the divorcing couple works with collaborative professionals — and without court interference — to arrive at an informed solution designed to deliver the most positive outcome possible for the family.

It’s Confidential

Collaborative professionals control a confidential process — in an office rather than a courtroom setting – that provides the resources, structure and privacy needed for a divorcing couple to consider their unique circumstances and arrive at a mutually-agreeable settlement.

It’s Convenient

Collaborative law operates on a family’s schedule. Couples have the flexibility to schedule meetings with their collaborative team when all participants are best able to meet.

It’s Family-Focused

Parents divorcing collaboratively are better able to protect their children from the damaging effects of a highly contentious divorce and preserve more of their mutual respect for each other as parents.

—

Certainly, we’d like to live in a world in which all marriages work out and all families stay together. But given that couples decide to divorce, we believe the Collaborative Law process is the best way for divorcing couples to deal with the financial, emotional, and legal questions that divorce raises. In a courtroom, divorcing parties become adversaries rather than collaborators, and they ultimately become far less in control of the outcome than they would if they opted for the Collaborative route.