On behalf of Stange Law Firm, PC posted in Family Law on Monday, September 16, 2013.
As many Missouri couples know, sometimes a marriage does not work out. People grow apart; get sick of the bickering, or for whatever reasons just do not see their spouse as “the one” anymore. In many cases, both people still get along well enough, their marriage is just no longer fulfilling.
For many of these spouses — the ones who can imagine coming to some sort of an agreement without battling it out in court — a collaborative divorce is more appealing than a more traditional courtroom divorce.
With collaborative law, each spouse has their own attorney. Instead of going to court, each spouse — and their attorneys — sit down and come up with agreements. Once these agreements are reached, the divorce itself goes before a judge just to be signed off on.
For many couples, a collaborative divorce is appealing as each spouse gets to work together to come to an agreement and not have things like child custody or alimony solely decided by a judge. Rather, each spouse gets more control over the issue.
Additionally, many are leaning toward collaborative divorce in order to avoid some of the bitterness and fighting that can come with dragging a divorce out in the courtroom. This can end up being beneficial to both the adults and any children from the marriage.
One father recently shared his experience with collaborative divorce. For him, spending time with his daughter was more important than dividing up property. In the end, he gets his daughter every other week and alimony and how to divide up bills was decided between him and his ex-wife over a two month collaborative process.
The father seems happy with how the process of the collaborative divorce.
Of course though, not all are able to sit down and hash out the details. In some cases, an attempt may be made, but it may become increasingly clear agreements are not going to be reached. In these cases, it is fine to turn a collaborative divorce into a more traditional courtroom divorce; just different attorneys need to be used by each spouse.
Source: The Tampa Tribune, “Kindler, gentler divorces take the bite out of break-ups,” Ray Reyes, Sept. 15, 2013
