Collaborative Divorce

Collaborative Divorce

Dr. Babinski is trained in the collaborative divorce process as a “Communication Neutral”, which is typically a role held by a mental health professional with the goal of helping divorcing individuals communicate their positions in a productive manner. Collaborative divorce is a process conducted by a team of professionals with the joint goal of helping individuals dissolve their marriages without the use of litigation. Each party has a lawyer representing them trained in the collaborative process. These lawyers represent their identified client, but they are focused on support and encourage a feasible solution for both parties rather than create more conflict. There is also an assigned financial expert and a communication neutral.

When divorcing there are some individuals who are able to complete the process as an uncontested divorce, meaning that they do not disagree on any of the assets or financials that are separated. Others require litigation, which can be lengthy due to pushed out court dates, extremely expensive with lawyer fees as litigation continues, and emotionally draining. There is an alternative for people who fall somewhere in the middle who would like to dissolve their marriage, but have a few things they see differently. Collaborative divorce is a cooperative out of court solution focused approach to dissolving a marriage. Mediation and negotiating are used heavily in collaborative divorce to avoid the “fight to win” setting of a courtroom. In fact, one distinction of collaborative divorce, is that the parties have to agree to avoid litigation to participate in the process. If one party changes their mind, they have to find new legal representation and must start the divorce process over.

If you are interested in collaborative divorce please feel free to reach out for more information.