Collaborating with your spouse on your divorce may be the last thing on your mind. Yet, it’s something that every divorcing couple should consider – one last effort to work together and sort out the issues at hand.
Collaborative divorce involves you and your attorney meeting with your spouse and their collaboratively trained attorney out of court to try and work out solutions that you can both live with. You can bring in a third-party mediator or financial professionals throughout the process, but you and your spouse are agreeing to resolve your matter outside of court too. Here are two reasons why using collaborative law to resolve your divorce can be so beneficial:
1. It’s less emotionally damaging
No one is saying collaborative divorce will be easy, but it can certainly be a whole lot easier on you than a litigious one. For starters, you are not having to listen to your spouse or their legal representative bring up every little detail from the past that they hope will score them an advantage in front of a judge.
Reducing the stress and harm you cause each other puts you in a better place to make clear-headed decisions that will serve you well in the future. It will also make co-parenting much easier if you share children.
2. You decide what happens, not a judge
If you take your divorce to court, you must abide by the decision the judge makes regarding custody, property division and support. That can leave everybody feeling unhappy and dissatisfied with the results.
When you take the collaborative route, you continue negotiating until you reach an agreement and in doing so, you will find a commitment to creativity and compromise. You may not walk away with everything you want but you will feel proud of how you and your spouse maneuvered through the difficult process.
If those two benefits sound appealing, consider learning about some of the other advantages a collaborative divorce can have.