Many times, people come into my office for an initial consultation and they have heard the term collaborative divorce. They ask me what are the benefits of handling the divorce in the collaborative fashion. One of the benefits it’s less expensive than judicial litigation. In fact, I ask for a lesser retainer when I handle a collaborative matter than I would in a judicial litigated divorce. The reason I do that is because I am not wasting time going to court, filing motions, engaging in discovery and perhaps motions related to discovery. The time is truly devoted to discussing the issues and finding a way of resolving to each client’s mutual satisfaction. The time is truly
More importantly, especially if you have young children, and I’m talking children under the age of 18, a collaborative divorce allows the parties, hopefully, to realize they’re not divorcing their children. They’re divorcing their spouse. Hopefully, the other spouse feels the same way so we put the children first. It’s been my experience with past clients telling me even though they became divorced by using the collaborative process, the relationship with their children is better. They’re able to communicate effectively with their ex-spouse because they understand that parent is just that, a parent to their children. It’s always better to have two involved parents.
The other benefit of collaborative divorce is the parties truly are the masters of their own agreement. They can fashion the agreement in such a way that meets the needs of their particular family. I find this as well: when people are truly invested in their agreement, they are more apt to follow it. In my experience, when people divorce using the collaborative process, you see much less post-judgment litigation regarding financial issues or custody.
If you require experienced legal representation for divorce and family law matters, contact the Law Offices of Mark S. Paige, P.C. today to schedule a consultation.
