Collaborative

Collaborative divorce (sometimes called "cooperative divorce") is an alternative to traditional divorce and has very quickly become the preferred alternative for couples who wish to end their marriages in the quickest, least adversarial, and most cost effective manner possible. Similar to mediation, couples appear together before the neutral third party collaborative divorce attorney. Couples meet with the collaborative divorce attorney in an informal setting in an effort to resolve any issues in dispute between them. Once the parties have resolved their outstanding issues, the collaborative divorce attorney then prepares the documents that the parties will need in order to proceed to Court pro se to obtain a divorce on the basis of the agreement that they reached during the collaborative divorce process.

Collaborative divorce has many distinct advantages over traditional divorce, mediation, and arbitration. In collaborative divorce, couples work out their own resolution of the issues in dispute between them, which resolution they can tailor make to suit their own specific needs. That resolution is based on the decisions of the parties themselves and, unlike traditional divorce, neither party has to fear that the other party will get a better result than he or she should just because that party has the better or the more expensive attorney. In collaborative divorce, the parties make their own decisions, unlike traditional divorce and arbitration where the decisions are made for them by someone else. In collaborative divorce, unlike mediation, once the parties have resolved their differences, the collaborative divorce attorney then prepares all of the documents that the parties will need in order to obtain a divorce based on the agreement that they reached during the collaborative divorce process. As a result, collaborative divorce is always much quicker and much less expensive than each traditional divorce, mediation, or arbitration. The benefits of collaborative divorce are not without certain costs, however. Like mediation and arbitration, collaborative divorce is a voluntary process and will only work when both parties want and are willing to work together toward a quick, efficient, and cost effective way to resolve their issues and to end their mariages. Collaborative divorce will not work where the parties want a long, drawn out fight or where they need the zealous representation of separate attorneys and the process of the Court to compel disclosure of asset (and other) information.

If you're looking for an experienced collaborative divorce attorney, please do not hesitate to call Jay at 973-598-9580 or, if you prefer, e-mail him at Jay@Yanavok.com, by using the link at the top of this page.