Divorce is the legal separation of a married couple and is often carried out with the assistance of a divorce lawyer. It usually involves a lot of visits to the court rooms along with your family lawyer and is a gruesome experience that even the enemy should not have to go through. Though divorce cannot be pleasant but the pain and trouble of court hearings can be eased if you opt for collaborative divorce.
What Is Collaborative Divorce?
Collaborative divorce is a type of divorce in which both the parties i.e. husband and wife are willing to separate from each other and end their relationship as a lawfully wedded couple. This eliminates the need to go to the court since both parties are agreed to separate. However, there might be other things that would need negotiation such as child custody, property or financial assets distributions or other matters. This is when the couple would need to hire a family lawyer to meet with them outside the court and help them resolve their issues so that their divorce can be finalized. This is known as collaborative court and it happens outside of the court room.
Who Can Opt For It?
Any couple who is willingly filing for separation for each other but need to resolve conflicts regarding other matters (mentioned above) can opt for the collaborative divorce.
How Does Collaborative Divorce Happen?
The one thing pretty obvious and clear about collaborative divorce is that it happens outside the court room. So it could be any setting that you prefer i.e. office of your lawyer, counselor or even at your home. You, your soon-to-be ex-partner along with the attorneys from both sides will be present during these meet up sessions. The main purpose of this will be to look for solution to common conflicts so that the plea for divorce can be submitted to the court to be finalized without any court hearings or delays. This will be helpful as it saves you from going to the court, attending hearings and getting caught up in the legal hassle.
Benefits of Collaborative Divorce
As absurd as it may sound but there are actually several benefits that are associated with filing for collaborative divorce rather than doing it the traditional way. Divorce is bad and we do not encourage it but any professional divorce lawyer, Alexandria VA will recommend opting for collaborative divorce is you are to take the extreme decision. The first advantage of this type of divorce is that it saves a lot of time since you will not have to attend court room hearings that last for hours multiple times a week.
- It saves money. The divorce lawyer you hire for personal sittings will charge only a fraction of what a court attorney charges per hearing session.
- You do not have to provide any sort of evidence or face any allegations. The exchange is friendly, open, honest and very transparent.
- Both parties have an equal chance to contribute to the exchange and will be happy with the outcome.