|
Client-Attorney
Communication |
|
Adversarial
Divorce |
Collaborative
Divorce |
| Client meets
only with his/her attorney. Contact with the
other party is usually limited to court
hearings where the judge decides the issues. |
Client meets
privately with his/her attorney and with
his/her spouse and the other attorney in a
series of four-way conferences to identify
issues, brainstorm possible solutions and
reach settlement. There are no court
hearings and a judge is not involved. |
|
Where The Legal Fees Go |
|
Adversarial
Divorce |
Collaborative
Divorce |
| Majority of
attorney's billable time is spent on
hearings, filing motions for disclosure of
information, taking depositions and
appearing at court proceedings. |
Both
participants and their attorneys agree in
advance to full disclosure of all relevant
information, so no motions or depositions
are needed. The majority of time is spent in
meetings directly discussing issues and
creating settlement solutions. |
|
Who Decides What And
When |
|
Adversarial
Divorce |
Collaborative
Divorce |
| Ultimate
decisions on main issues of custody,
support, visitation, spousal maintenance and
property and debt distribution are decided
by a judge after a contested trial or during
a short pre-trial conference shortly before
trial, after many hearings, discovery
efforts and preparation for trial have
occurred. |
Ultimate
decisions on all issues are made by the
participants in a settlement agreement
prepared by the attorneys. Rather than
focusing on settlement only after months of
adversarial posturing, motions and temporary
court orders, the entire process is aimed at
settlement. |
|
Post Divorce
Relationships |
|
Adversarial
Divorce |
Collaborative
Divorce |
| Divorce
litigation is often a traumatic, hurtful
experience to all concerned. Testifying
against your spouse and hearing what your
spouse has to say about you in order for
him/her to "win" often leads to long-term
alienation, lack of trust and a deep-seeded
inability to work together regarding
important issues of post-divorce custody,
visitation and child rearing. Many people
consider their divorce proceedings as one of
the worst experiences in their lives, even
if they "won" the case. |
Since all
decisions are made jointly by both
participants, there is a strong sense of
satisfaction and accomplishment when the
case is settled, Although divorcing couples
are not expected to be best friends
afterwards, being able to work through tough
decisions and reach settlements together
empowers participants to have confidence
that they will be able to continue to
discuss and resolve future issues that might
arise. This feeling of being able to work
together, especially in cases involving
children, is considered by most
collaborative divorce participants as being
more important than "winning" every point in
court. |
