This post is from Camille Milner, a Collaborative Lawyer practicing in Denton, Collin, and Dallas Counties, Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Family Law. She is also a Collaborative Trainer and Mediator. If you are contemplating or already going through a divorce, please consider the following questions: When you and your spouse look back in twenty years, how do you want your children to remember how you both handled this moment that will be frozen in time for your … [Read more...]
Let’s Just Do What’s Fair
This post is from Kevin Fuller, a partner with Dallas-based law firm Koons, Fuller, Vanden Eykel and Robertson, and past president of the Collaborative Law Institute of Texas. Many times when you ask a client going through a divorce what he or she wants, he or she will say something like, “I just want what’s fair.” Wanting to “be fair” sounds great at first, but just wanting “what’s fair” is not too helpful in trying to help people figure out what their core interests and concerns are, and … [Read more...]
Overcoming the Trust Gap During Divorce
This post is from Vicki James, a licensed professional counselor and licensed marriage and family therapist practicing in Dallas and surrounding areas. She is a trained an experienced collaborative neutral communication professional who works with couples facing divorce. By the time couples find themselves facing a divorce, there is little or no trust left in the relationship. One of the best ways to restore and work on trust going forward is learning to communicate in a respectful way. Using … [Read more...]
Addressing Your Child’s Psychological Stress During and After Your Divorce
This post is from MaryAnn Kildebeck, a professional counselor providing therapy for families and individuals, who has been involved in Collaborative Law since January 2006. She is a member of the New Paradigm Training team, providing training for collaborative professionals, a past President of the Denton County Collaborative Professionals, former Vice President of Public Education for the Global Collaborative Law Council, and a presenter for professional collaborative law conferences. She has … [Read more...]
Child Support in a Collaborative Divorce (Part Two)
This post is from Scott Clarke, a Certified Financial Planner and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst currently in private practice in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, who has been in the financial advising business since the early 1990s and has specialized in the divorce financial aspects for the past 6 years, and from from Curtis Harrison, a collaboratively trained family law attorney working for the law firm of Albin | Harrison | Roach in Plano, Texas. Harrison is board certified in Family Law by … [Read more...]
Child Support in a Collaborative Divorce (Part One)
This post is from Scott Clarke, a Certified Financial Planner and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst currently in private practice in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, and a Collaborative Law Institute of Texas Board Member. He has been in the financial advising business since the early 1990s and has specialized in the divorce financial aspects for the past 6 years. In my experience, one of the areas in which clients are most creative in the collaborative process is in how they choose to structure … [Read more...]
New Concerns Regarding Health Insurance Coverage
This post is from Tracy Stewart, CPA, PFS, CFF, CFP, CDFA, a College Station and Houston-based financial planner and Collaborative Law Institute of Texas board member. In many households, health insurance is covered with a policy that is tied to one of the spouses. If the other spouse is a homemaker, or employed where no health insurance is provided, that spouse needs to find replacement health insurance. Prior to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the Healthcare Reform Bill), … [Read more...]
Why Collaborative Divorce Works in Small and Medium-Sized Towns
This post is from Sally Holt Emerson, an Amarillo-based attorney with the Underwood Law Firm, who has been board certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Family Law for 19 years. Among other local, state and national organizations, she is a member of the Board of the Collaborative Law Institute of Texas, the founding Council of the State Bar’s Collaborative Law Section, and the Texas College of Collaborative Law. I practice law in the Panhandle of Texas, where there aren't … [Read more...]
How Collaborative Divorce Can Place Those Divorcing Later in Life in Charge
One of the features of a collaborative divorce is that you and your spouse tailor an agreement to fit your situation. When spouses cannot agree, judges have limits on which facts they can consider and what they can order after a trial. The following are examples of judicial limitations and how they may be significant to those divorcing later in life: Supporting adult children. Judges cannot order child support for a child over age 18, unless the child is disabled. In a collaborative divorce, … [Read more...]
A Real Life Collaborative Divorce Success Story
Today is a day to celebrate the first meeting of the Collaborative Law Section of the State Bar of Texas, which took place at the State Bar Convention in Fort Worth this morning. Texas was the first state in the nation to pass legislation recognizing Collaborative Law as an alternative means of dispute resolution back in 2001. Now, the State Bar of Texas has taken a big step forward in providing a means to educate the public and the bar about what Collaborative Law is and how it can benefit … [Read more...]
