• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Members Home | Events | Your Account | For Students | Cart | Log Out
CDT Professional Membership | Events | Professionals Login | For Students | Cart
 
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Vimeo
  • YouTube
Collaborative Divorce Texas

Collaborative Divorce Texas

Divorce Differently

  • Home
  • About CDT
    • What is Collaborative Divorce?
    • Why Use a CDT Member?
    • Find a Collaborative Professional
    • Client Testimonials
    • Board of Trustees / Advisory Board
    • Master and Credentialed Collaborative Divorce Professionals
    • The Gay G. Cox Award for Excellence in Collaborative Law
  • FAQs
  • Professionals Directory
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Blog / Lawyer Perspective on Collaborative Divorce / Dividing the Family Business Without Destroying It

Dividing the Family Business Without Destroying It

October 22, 2009 by CDT Staff - s.h.

A nasty divorce resolved by a courthouse showdown can destroy the family, the family’s wealth and the family’s business. Sit down with any experienced family law trial lawyer, and he or she will be able to tell you war stories of courtroom shootouts where a warring family ended up destroying the very wealth they were trying to divide. The worst of these divorce war stories end with a business or personal bankruptcy, following a take no prisoners approach to a family’s divorce.

There is a better way for families to divide their wealth in a divorce. That better way is called a collaborative law divorce. In a collaborative law divorce, the parties stay out of the courthouse and focus on solving problems through business-like negotiations versus assessing blame for problems in adversarial litigation.

The collaborative process is a solution-oriented settlement process that is both family-friendly and business-friendly. A nasty litigated divorce can be expensive and disruptive to an ongoing business. In aggressively litigated divorce cases, the business owner and sometimes employees of the business must spend days gathering and organizing documents, attending depositions and hearings and preparing for trial. This costs money and more importantly is a major distraction to the business owner. In these challenging economic times being less that 100% focused on your business can be disastrous to the business.

When the parties work in the collaborative process, they follow a business-like “road map” that guides the parties through a logical step by step process that is designed to increase the chances of settlement and decrease the chances of emotional blow-ups that often result in families tearing each other apart at the courthouse.

For business owners and their spouses the benefits of the collaborative process can include:

* A more private and confidential process than the traditional litigation process
* Financial solutions that are carefully custom crafted to meet needs of the business as well as the parties versus a “one-size fits all” approach.
* Legal fees and professional expenses are more efficiently used, fees are spent solely on settlement efforts and not on procedural, evidentiary and other legal technicalities required in the litigation process.
* Meetings are scheduled when convenient for the parties, instead of being centered around a court’s busy docket.
* The collaborative process can take mere weeks or months to accomplish a resolution versus years in the litigation process.
* The parties are much less likely to cause irreparable damage to family relationships and the family business than in contested litigation.

With a collaborative law divorce, the parties have a chance to find ways to expand the pie they are trying to divide instead of destroying it. What a concept –- a divorce with at least the possibility of making things better instead of worse.

Filed Under: Blog, Lawyer Perspective on Collaborative Divorce Tagged With: Family Business

Footer

The Collaborative Law Institute of Texas

d/b/a
Collaborative Divorce Texas
6275 W. Plano Parkway
Suite 500
Plano, TX 75039
(972) 386-0158
Please note: Our office will be closed on
Holiday closures:
Limited: Nov. 23rd & 24th Closed: Nov. 25th , 26th and 27th
Christmas: Closed from December 24-December 30, 2022. Offices open on January 2nd, 2023.
Global Partners of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals

Copyright © 2023 · Collaborative Divorce Texas · All Rights Reserved
Website Terms of Usage • Contact Our Webmaster