Divorce Attorney: How Does Collaborative Divorce Work?

As a divorce attorney, I have helped many couples through the collaborative divorce process and wish to discuss how collaborative divorce works. Collaborative divorce is not like a traditional divorce or even mediation.

In collaborative divorce, each spouse has a divorce attorney who helps the parties reach an agreement, rather than engage in an adversarial process. The spouses and their attorneys enter into an agreement to work together to resolve all the issues of the divorce, including child custody, child support, spousal support and property division.

As an interdisciplinary approach, collaborative divorce uses the experience and expertise of a mental health professional or divorce coach to assist in reducing stress and improving communication between spouses. A financial planner is utilized to reduce the costs of divorce attorney fees and to gather all pertinent financial information.

As a divorce attorney I know the challenges that people face when it is time to divorce. And I know the good that collaborative divorce can do for people. Through collaborative divorce, decision-making power is kept in their own hands instead of ceding that power to a judge, giving the parties control over their lives.

Further, the collaborative process is well-suited to divorces with children, as it helps parents begin to work together. This can be incredibly important to the well-being of a child. While parents may no longer be spouses to each other, being able to work together in the collaborative divorce process proves to a child that his or her parents will always work together for the best solutions possible for their family.

As a divorce attorney, I helped to introduce the benefits of collaborative divorce to Missouri in 2001, and since then, have conducted numerous advanced trainings for other attorneys who wanted to learn more about the process and how their family law clients could be helped by it. A teamwork approach to resolving hard issues in divorce, and the collaborative divorce process can be the right solution, in many divorce cases.

If you are in the Kansas City Metro area and are interesting in finding out if the collaborative divorce approach is right for you and your family, contact me today, Hugh O’Donnell, a divorce attorney to schedule a consultation, or feel free to call me at (816) 533-5152 with any questions you have regarding collaborative divorce.