What Is The Least Expensive Way To Divorce In Tampa Bay?

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PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN IN 2016 AND THE HOURLY RATES BELOW DO NOT REFLECT OUR CURRENT RATES

You have probably heard of divorce horror stories where couples have suffered for years entrenched in court battles and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.  Fortunately, this is more the exception  than the rule, but still, divorce usually is not cheap.  It is a process, and there are raw emotions involved, but there are methods that can cost more or less.

So what is the least expensive way to divorce?

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Tampa Bay Tomorrow Radio: A Client Discusses Collaborative Divorce

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Tampa Bay Tomorrow host Corey Dylan recently welcomed “Clair,” a collaborative divorce client, on her show to talk about his experience.  Clair was joined on air by his collaborative attorney, Julia Best Chase, along with the collaborative attorney who represented his former wife, Adam B. Cordover.

Clair discussed the reasons he and his wife chose the collaborative process, along with the ability of them to maintain a relationship after the collaborative divorce was finalized.

Tampa Bay Tomorrow is a program of the iHeart Media Group.  This episode appeared on several radio stations, including WFLA 970, WFLZ 93.3, WFUS 103.5, WXTB 97.9, WDAE 620, WMTX 100.7, WBTP 95.7, and WHNZ 1250.

You can listen to the radio show after the jump:

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Video: Cordover on Collaborative Divorce

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Tampa Bay collaborative attorney and Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Law Mediator Adam B. Cordover discusses collaborative divorce in the following short video:

“Most families do not want to be enemies, they do not want to be warring against one another.  And so I have been inspired by these families, and I have found that most want a private option,” says Cordover in the video.

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Top 20 Most Viewed Blog Posts (First Half 2016)

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Ever since our new website, FamilyDiplomacy.com, launched in August of 2015, the readership on our Blog has steadily increased.  Though it is not an exact comparison, in the first 6 months of 2016, we had 2,750 individual visitors and 5,900 views, which is over a 55% increase in individual visitors and 70% increase in views over the last five months of 2015.

At the end of last year, we create a blog listing the top 10 viewed posts so far.  Now, you can find the top 20 viewed blog posts of FamilyDiplomacy.com over the first six months below (click the title to go to the blog post):

1. 2016 Collaborative Law Process Making Progress in Florida Legislature

Senate Bill 972, the “Collaborative Law Process Act,” is making its way through the Florida Senate and will hopefully become law this summer.  The Collaborative Law Process Act creates a legal framework for families to resolve disputes outside of court. The bill specifies that…

2. Governor Scott Signs Florida Collaborative Divorce Bill Into Law

On March 24, 2016, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed HB 967, the “Collaborative Law Process Act,” making Florida the 14th state to have Collaborative Divorce codified in its laws…

3. Collaborative Divorce

Divorce is a trauma. It is tough not only for the spouses who are separating, but also for their children, their friends, their relatives, and their community. If you can avoid divorce, whether by seeking help from a therapist or clergy, you should attempt to do so. However, sometimes a marriage is truly irretrievably broken…

4. Florida to Make Marriage Certificates Gender Neutral.  What About Birth Certificates?

According to a recent report in the Tampa edition of Creative Loafing, in light of the recent Supreme Court decision and issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Florida’s Office of Vital Statistics is making the state’s marriage certificates gender neutral…

5. Are Florida Divorce Courts Anti-Dad?

Over the past few years, there has been a movement to overhaul the alimony and child custody laws of Florida and other states. This is because husbands and fathers have felt like they are under siege in the family law court system. They have a glimmer of hope that, if only the laws were changed..

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TED Talk: Lawyer As Peacemaker

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Harvard Law Professor and Collaborative Attorney David A. Hoffman recently gave a TED Talk on “Lawyer as Peacemaker.”

You can find the TED Talk after the jump:

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Audio: Next Generation Divorce’s Derek Lucas Radio Interview

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Next Generation Divorce Co-Chair Derek Lucas recently appeared on WDUV 105.5 FM’s Sunday Morning, a news and public affairs program of Cox Media Group hosted by Mimi Lawson.  WDUV (also known as The Dove) covers New Port Richey and Tampa Bay in the Gulf Coast of Florida.

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Derek went on the program to discuss collaborative divorce, a private, respectful alternative to traditional courtroom divorce.  In collaborative divorce, both spouses retain their own attorneys, and the attorneys focus solely on helping the spouses reach an out-of-court parenting plan and marital settlement agreement.  This means that no time, money, or energy is wasted on opposition research, motion practice, or trial preparation.

Oftentimes, a neutral facilitator with a license in counseling or therapy is retained to help the spouses focus on what is most important to them (such as the health and well-being of their children) rather than the arguments of the past.  Further, a financial professional is many times used to ensure financial transparency between the spouses and to help develop a plan for support and the division of assets and debts that is personally tailored for the family.

You can find the sixteen minute interview after the jump:

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Jewish Prenuptial Agreements for Mutual Respect

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In Judaism, like in many religions, marriage is not only a union between two partners, but it is the intertwining of two souls.  However, according to Chabad.org, just as G-d prescribes a way to fuse two souls, G-d has also provided detailed instructions on how the souls can be reverted to the state of independence.

A divorce in Jewish law is formalized by a get, which is a dated and witnessed document within which the husband states his unqualified intention to divorce his wife.  If a husband does not provide his wife with a get, then the couple is not considered divorce, and so the wife cannot get remarried.

According to ITIM, an organization that helps people navigate the religious authorities’ bureaucracy in Israel, “Unfortunately, the get has become a tool for expressing anger and revenge and is a weapon in the hands of the one member of the couple who refuses to grant or receive the get and locks in (‘anchors’) the other party.  Such anchoring is especially problematic for a woman since it prevents her remarriage.”

To prevent the problems that come with a man refusing to provide his wife with a get, in May 2006, the Rabbinical Council of America reiterated a previous resolution that “no rabbi should officiate at a wedding where a proper prenuptial agreement on get has not been executed.”  Further, as a deterrent to get-refusal, the International Young Israel Movement, Council of Young Israel Rabbis in Israel, and the Beth Din of America suggest the use of a Prenuptial Agreement for Mutual Respect.

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Jennifer Gunnin: Working With A Peacemaking Collaborative Attorney

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My paralegal, Jennifer Gunnin, has now been with my firm for over 3 years.  She was with me when I was still accepting litigation work, and so she saw the toll that lengthy, nasty court battles had on divorcing spouses and their children.

And she has seen the transition of my practice.  In July of last year (2015), on the fifth anniversary of my shingle being hung, we changed the name of the business from The Law Firm of Adam B. Cordover, P.A., to Family Diplomacy: A Collaborative Law Firm.  Further, we pledged that we would not take on any new litigation cases, and that we would focus exclusively on helping clients resolve their family law matters outside of court via collaborative practice, mediation, and unbundled legal services (we also offer adoption and name change legal services).

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Since we shifted our focus to private dispute resolution, Jennifer attended a two-day basic collaborative training (one that is usually reserved for attorneys, financial professionals, and mental health professionals) so that she could better understand the process and help our clients who are utilizing the collaborative process.

One day, my office received a call from Forrest (Woody) Mosten, an internationally acclaimed mediator and collaborative attorney from California, about an American Bar Association book that he and I are co-authoring on Building A Collaborative Law Practice.  Jennifer picked up the phone, and they talked about the new focus of our firm, her training, and what it was like to work in a newly courtless practice.  Woody suggested that she write an article on Working With A Peacemaking Collaborative Attorney.

And so she did.

You can find her article published at The World of Collaborative Practice Magazine, part of which is published below the jump.

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Will Florida Grant a Transgender Name Change?

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The Associated Press is reporting that a transgender man’s request to change his legal name has been rejected by a Georgia Superior Court Judge.  The man, a sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserve, wants to change his legal name from Rebeccah Elizabeth Feldhaus to Rowan Elijah Feldhaus.

In rejecting the request, Judge J. David Roper wrote, “The question presented is whether a female has the statutory right to changer her name to a traditionally and obviously male name.  The Court concludes that she does not have such right.”

So would a transgender person’s petition for a change of legal name to reflect their gender identity be granted in Tampa Bay, Greater Sarasota, or elsewhere in Florida?

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Video: The Collaborative Way to Divorce with Stu Webb & Ron Ousky

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Stu Webb is the founder of collaborative law, also referred to as collaborative divorce.  And sometimes, it is refreshing to listen to his view of the process:  “Collaborative law is different in that it is a method in a divorce situation to get an agreement…by working with two lawyers all in the context of not going to court…There is a commitment on the part of the lawyers that they will not go to court.”  Stu made these statements in a video entitled “The Collaborative Way to Divorce,” which demonstrates what a collaborative divorce can look like, with commentary.

Joining Stu is Ron Ousky, a former president of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals.  “What I ask clients [who are going through collaborative divorce] to think about is, ‘What is going to matter to you 20 years from now when you look back?  What are the things that you are going to care about,'” asks Ron.  “And usually they will say things like, ‘I want my children to be healthy.  I want to be able to get through this emotionally.  I want to get through this financially.’  Sometimes they’ll say, ‘I want to make sure my spouse gets through it right.  I want to make sure sure we end this with some dignity.’  Often when you get clients to focus on goals, you’ll find that they have shared goals, common goals.  They probably have more in common than they differ on.”

 

You can find the video after the jump.

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