Collaborative Divorce

A collaborative is a divorce where both parties have attorneys who are working to settle the divorce prior to either party filing anything with the court.  Ideally, you would hire a family law attorney and your spouse would hire an attorney as well. Once both of you are represented, then the attorneys would communicate back and forth to reach a settlement in your divorce without having to go to court for any hearings. 

For a collaborative divorce, our divorce attorney in Birmingham would quote you a reduced retainer fee which they would then bill out of as they work on the case. If at some point the retainer is depleted, you will have to repay the retainer for the attorney to continue working with the opposing party to reach an agreement in a collaborative divorce.

To do this, both sides have to be cooperative and open to compromise for the collaborative divorce process to be effective. If one or both parties are not willing to negotiate on the issues, the process will not work. Our divorce lawyers in Huntsville, or anywhere else across Alabama, can attempt to reach an agreement with your spouse’s attorney in any case prior to the divorce being filed. However, the collaborative divorce will likely not be successful unless they have an attorney and are open to compromise.

What are the Benefits of Collaborative Divorce? 

• The collaborative divorce route might be for you if you want to work out the terms outside of court but you would feel more comfortable having the advice of an experienced attorney who is on your side. Since your collaborative divorce lawyer will be representing you and nobody else, he/she can advise you throughout the proceedings and advocate on your behalf should it turn contested at some point.
• If the collaborative divorce is effective and you don’t have to go to trial, the process is more simple and less expensive than traditional divorce. The setting is more comfortable and informal since the contested divorce has not been filed yet.
• Since the point of a collaborative divorce is to come to a result that is fair to both sides, communication is more open. The parties involved are more likely to be honest and free with information that will help the process move forward.
• You can decide now how to handle post-settlement disputes. Rather than waiting dealing with future issues as they happen you can deal with them during the collaborative divorce process.
• You negotiate a result that works for you. Rather than going to court and having a judge decide, you can negotiate the result that you actually have control over.
• Most importantly, a collaborative divorce can spare a great deal of stress to the families that are going through the process. A lengthy, adversarial trial can do further damage to an already broken relationship. Although a marriage is ending, people on both sides may still need to function as a family if there are children involved.

If the collaborative divorce is unsuccessful, you or your spouse will have to file a contested divorce and the other party will need to be served. Our local divorce attorney in Tuscaloosa or anywhere else can advocate for you in the contested divorce. However, if you believe your spouse is amenable to a settlement, but the two of you are not quite there, then give us a call to try a collaborative divorce and reach a settlement agreement before paying the much higher expense of a hotly contested divorce.