Like divorce lawyers in litigated matters, your Collaborative Divorce attorney will tell you how the law applies to your unique factual situation and will draft and revise the final agreement resolving your situation. However, lawyers in the Collaborative Divorce Process perform other critical functions.
Using the special skills involved in Collaborative Process, your attorney will keep you fully informed during every stage of the process, presenting the options that are available to you to resolve every issue affecting you and your children.
The special services your collaboratively-trained lawyer will provide include:
- Helping you to identify and clarify your real concerns and goals.
- Helping you to articulate your specific goals in the collaborative process (e.g., avoid damaging your children during the divorce process; maintain the children’s lifestyle post-divorce, achieve support or other specific financial needs, etc.)
- Helping you to focus on the relative importance of issues within the context of those articulated goals.
- Securing the necessary financial expertise to ensure a ‘level playing field.’
- Identifying and working with qualified appraisers needed to value your marital property.
- Identifying the range of solutions available to you.
- Providing detailed analysis of alternative solutions.
- Evaluating financial information so that you may carefully consider and accurately weigh your options.
- Helping you select your best solution in light of the circumstances you and your family face now and in the future.
- Ensuring you have the time you need to understand and select the choice that is best for you.
- Respecting the choices you make, even when those choices may vary from what a typical “legal” solution might be.
- Modeling your behavior to foster stability, candor, honesty and a genuine search for answers that will help you and all members of the family.
- Providing the suitable negotiation environment, with respectful demeanor and communications during collaborative meetings.
- Demonstrating clear communication skills to help the progress of negotiations.
- Informing you when and how to use other members of the collaborative divorce team effectively.
Making use of the skills of your collaboratively-trained attorney, you will feel confident that you have achieved your goals and have arrived at the best resolution for you and your family.
Filed in: Collaborative Attorneys