Collaboration Divorce Process

Each family is unique and that means each family’s process will be unique, however, once each of the parties has retained his/her collaboratively trained attorney, the process that our local academy normally follows is:

1. Each client meets with one of our academy’s trained family coaches for an initial conference to assess suitability of the collaborative process
2. Both attorneys and both clients sign the Collaborative Family Law Participation Agreement after the parties decide they would like to proceed
3. Client and their attorneys meet in four-way sessions to work toward agreements on all issues that must be decided. These sessions will :
   1. Identify goals of each client
   2. Gather information for all to share
   3. Generate options after all necessary information is gathered
   4. Work toward resolutions that address the client’s goals
   5. Sessions may include neutral professionals ( family coach, financial neutral) in sessions who can help clarify and evaluate for the clients
      1. Property division
      2. Parenting allocation
      3. Support
4. Each session will have an agenda to follow and minutes (maybe with some assignments to complete to keep the sessions productive and timely)
5. Agreements can be made ( temporary ones in order to stabilize daily living or binding agreements in order to become final)
6. Once all issues are resolved, then the attorneys will draft the requisite documents that are required by the Court to finalize the process and include the clients’ agreements regarding :
   1. Property division
   2. Parenting allocation
   3. Support

Note: The duration and number of sessions will depend on the number of issues, the unique people involved, the availability of the clients and attorneys, and the timeliness of clients getting the necessary information to the team