The benefits that divorcing spouses can anticipate by availing themselves of the Collaborative Divorce process are the following:
- Avoidance of adversarial litigation in court proceedings that can consume considerable time and money, and increase anxiety and uncertainty;
- Joint development of healthy co-parenting plans and skills that can enable the divorcing spouses to help their children through the divorce adjustment, so that the distress for children will be dealt with and minimized;
- Preservation of relationships with children and between ex-spouses who in the future will co-parent their children, perhaps co-grandparent their grandchildren, and share in their children’s and grandchildren’s holidays, birthdays, vacations, graduations, marriage ceremonies, etc.;
- Mutual transparency, so that all information needed to support transparent negotiations and good decision-making will be available without the use of costly and time-consuming discovery processes (interrogatories, depositions, etc.) normally associated with litigated divorce;
- Professional support in addressing the legal, financial, emotional, and relational aspects of divorce;
- Dignity, mutual respect, openness, and honesty in the divorce process, with an attendant reduction in conflict, hostility, stress, and anxiety;
- The ability, with the support and guidance of the collaborative team, to fashion creative solutions designed by the divorcing spouses to fit their own particular circumstances and those of their children, rather than having to turn the responsibility for decisions over to lawyers and judges in litigation.
- Confidentiality, privacy, predictability, and flexibility in the divorce process.
- Retention of control over, and responsibility for, the divorce process and the divorce transition, including greater control over costs and timing than in most litigated cases.
- Dealing in a healthy and constructive manner with the anger, resentment, anxiety, pain, sense of loss, and other emotions commonly encountered by divorcing spouses and family members; and
- Assistance and expertise in organizing financial information and addressing financial issues, the division of property, child and spousal support, and financial budgeting, and short- and long-term financial planning.
