Collaborative Divorce: Stepping Forward

The Collaborative law process recognizes emotional issues exist in divorce cases that cannot be addressed by the legal system. For the adversarial area of Florida family law, this is a "paradigm shift." Psychologist Abraham Maslow said that in any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety. The collaborative divorce process lets you step forward into growth.

Collaborative divorce law is different from a traditional Florida divorce court battle. Litigation, by its nature, is adversarial and combative. Litigation results in the parties and the attorneys focusing on attacking one another and wearing each other down, using a "take no prisoners" approach. The resulting fall out is often negative and far-reaching, particularly when children or privacy issues are involved.

The Florida collaborative divorce law process is geared from day one to make it possible for creative, respectful collective problem-solving to happen. It is quicker, more creative, more

individualized, far less stressful, and overall both parties are far more satisfied with the results than what occurs in most conventional settlement negotiations. The collaborative process itself is a critical component of settlement negotiations.

If you

-Want a civilized, respectful resolution of your Florida divorce issues.

-Place as much or more value on the relationships that will exist in your restructured family situation as you place on obtaining the maximum possible amount of money for yourself.

-Understand that conflict resolution with integrity involves achieving not only your own goals but finding a way to achieve the reasonable goals of the other person.

-Would like to keep open the possibility of friendship with your partner down the road.

-Will be co-parenting children together and you want the best co-parenting relationship possible.

-Want to protect your children from the harm associated with litigated dispute-resolution between parents.

-Have friends and extended family in common that you both want to remain connected to.

-Have ethical or spiritual beliefs that place high value on taking personal responsibility for handling conflicts with integrity.

-You value privacy in your personal affairs and don't want details of your Florida divorce to be available in the public court records.

-Value autonomous decisionmaking and don't want to hand over decisions about restructuring your financial and/or child-rearing arrangements to the legal system.

-Recognize the restricted range of outcomes and "rough justice" generally available in the public court system, and want a more creative and individualized range of choices available to you and your spouse for resolving your issues.

you are stepping forward! You should consider using the collaborative divorce process to keep moving forward.