Collaborative Divorce : Family Diplomacy | A Collaborative Law Firm

COLLABORATIVE DIVORCE AND FAMILY LAW IN FLORIDA. No matter how you look at it, divorce and family law matters are difficult to go through. Expectations of stability are shattered,

mistrust grows, and bills pile up. And then the litigation begins. Attorneys file and serve petitions, counterpetitions, requests to produce, and motions to compel. Each party hires dueling mental health experts to convince a judge that he or she should have more time with the children. Privacy is eliminated as each party’s life is probed and publicly questioned so that one side may gain a tactical advantage.

But there is a different way. A more civilized way. And it is called Collaborative Family Law (also known as Collaborative Divorce or Collaborative Practice).

We are a Collaborative law firm dedicated to helping people resolve personal disputes without destroying their families. We encourage the use of the Collaborative Family Law model in divorce, child custody, child support, alimony, post-judgment, prenuptial, and most other family law cases. Further, Adam B. Cordover is an internationally-recognized leader in Collaborative Practice, a trainer who teaches other professionals how to help families Collaboratively, and author of an upcoming American Bar Association book on Collaborative Law.

Money Talk 1010 AM: Introducing Collaborative Divorce

September 26, 2015/0 Comments/in Collaborative Divorce, Family Law News //Tags: collaborative attorney, collaborative divorce, collaborative facilitator, collaborative family law, collaborative financial professional, Collaborative Law, collaborative mental health professional, collaborative practice, Tampa Bay Collaborative Divorce, Tampa Bay Collaborative Family Lawby Adam

I recently had the opportunity to appear on the Let’s Talk Law radio program along with Licensed Mental Health Counselor Linda Peterman. We were introducing collaborative divorce to the Tampa Bay listeners of Money Talk 1010 AM and had a great conversation with host Roxanne Wilder.

Collaborative divorce is a private form of dispute resolution where each spouse retains an attorney. The attorneys only focus on negotiating an agreement, and they are contractually barred from engaging in contested court proceedings. All negotiations are had in a private conference room rather than the public courthouse.

A neutral facilitator, who generally is licensed in a field of mental health, oftentimes helps the spouses focus on what is most important (such as the welfare of the children) rather than the arguments of the past. A neutral financial professional, who has either a financial planning or accounting background, is frequently retained to efficiently ensure full financial transparency and aid the spouses to make the transition from married life to financially independent single life.

You can listen to the radio program, which was sponsored by Next Generation Divorce and aired on September 4, 2015 immediately after the Dave Ramsey Show, after the jump.

Collaborative Divorce in Israel: The Peaceful Divorce

September 22, 2015/0 Comments/in Collaborative Divorce //Tags: collaborative attorney, collaborative divorce, collaborative facilitator, collaborative family law, collaborative financial professional, Collaborative Law, collaborative mental health professional, collaborative practice, divorce, Israel, parenting plan, Tampa Bay Collaborative Divorce, Tampa Bay Collaborative Family Lawby Adam

While Collaborative Divorce began in the United States in 1990 when Minnesota family law attorney Stu Webb declared that he would no longer take any new litigated cases, it has spread throughout the world to provide spouses with a private, respectful method to separate.

להתגרש בשלום

One such place that it has spread is Israel, where a practice group named “L’Hitgaresh B’Shalom” based out of Tel Aviv is teaching Israelis how they can constructively restructure their families. L’Hitgaresh B’Shalom roughly translates as “The Peaceful Divorce,” “To Divorce in Peace,” or “Divorcing Peacefully.” In a region that is oftentimes in the midst of physical battles, it is amazing that there are professionals who are attempting to insulate families from the destruction of court battles.

Radio Commercial: A Next Generation Divorce

September 21, 2015/0 Comments/in Collaborative Divorce //Tags: collaborative attorney, collaborative divorce, collaborative facilitator, collaborative family law, collaborative financial professional, Next Generation Divorceby Adam

Lately, as a member of Next Generation Divorce, one of the nation’s largest collaborative practice groups, I have had the opportunity to appear on Money Talk 1010’s Let’s Talk Law program. Those programs will be on the web shortly.

In the meantime, you can find a 60 second commercial on Next Generation Divorce and the collaborative process below.

Video: Don’t Make Your Divorce A Declaration of War

September 7, 2015/0 Comments/in Collaborative Divorce //Tags: collaborative attorney, collaborative divorce, collaborative facilitator, collaborative family law, collaborative financial professional, Collaborative Law, collaborative mental health professional, collaborative practiceby Adam

Collaborative professionals around the country and, indeed, around the world are getting the word out that there is a better alternative to traditional divorce court battles: Collaborative Divorce.

In the video below, New Jersey attorney Linda Piff has a great short video that provides a brief overview of the collaborative process.

Do You Really Need An “Aggressive” Divorce Lawyer?

September 6, 2015/0 Comments/in Collaborative Divorce, Divorce //Tags: collaborative attorney, collaborative divorce, collaborative facilitator, collaborative family law, collaborative financial professional, Collaborative Law, collaborative mental health professional, collaborative practiceby Adam

If you are considering divorce, whether here in Florida or elsewhere, and you are doing online research about family law attorneys, you will come across many firms that describe their attorneys as “aggressive” and “ready to fight for you.”

You will not find that type of language on Family Diplomacy’s website, as we believe that spouses should not be pitted against one another, and family issues should be resolved via the collaborative process in private offices rather than public courtrooms. And yet, we concede that our approach may not be for everyone.

So, when should you look elsewhere for an “aggressive” divorce lawyer?

Research: Collaborative Divorce By The Numbers (2010)

August 28, 2015/0 Comments/in Collaborative Divorce, Divorce //Tags: collaborative attorney, collaborative child specialist, collaborative divorce, collaborative facilitator, collaborative family law, collaborative financial professional, Collaborative Law, collaborative mental health professional, collaborative practice, IACP, International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, Researchby Adam

A few years ago, the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals released the results of a survey of 933 collaborative divorce and family law cases. Collaborative divorce is a process by which parties, instead of going to court to litigate, agree to a private framework that lends itself to developing more creative options for financial, child custody, and other family issues. In Florida, oftentimes a neutral facilitator/communication coach and a neutral financial professional are engaged to facilitate and lend their expertise to the process.

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The survey was conducted from October 2006 through July 2010, and these results were compiled in the Spring 2012 edition of The Collaborative Review: The Journal of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (“IACP Research Regarding Collaborative Practice (Basic Findings)” by Linda Wray, J.D.):

58% of husbands and 59% of wives were between 40 and 54 years old;
Over three-quarters of all clients had a 4-year college education or higher;

Polyamorous “Divorce” in Tampa Bay

August 26, 2015/0 Comments/in Collaborative Divorce, Divorce, LGBT Family Law Matters //Tags: collaborative attorney, collaborative divorce, collaborative facilitator, collaborative family law, collaborative financial professional, Collaborative Law, collaborative marriage planning, collaborative mental health professional, collaborative practice, polyamorous divorce, polyamorous relationship, polyamorous separation, Tampa Bay Collaborative Family Lawby Adam

More and more people in the Tampa Bay area and beyond are finding themselves in relationships that do not quite fit the traditional mold. Many are in long-term romantic relationships with more than one partner, where the other partners are also in romantic relationships with each other.

These relationships are oftentimes referred to as “polyamorous,” or love involving more than 2 people. Polyamory is not about sex, just as traditional marriage is not about sex, but about the relationship between the partners.

And just as many traditional marriages end in separation, polyamorous relationships can also end in separation. The problem is that the laws and the court system are not built with polyamorists in mind.

Video: Collaborative Law – Managing Disputes Differently

August 22, 2015/0 Comments/in Collaborative Divorce //Tags: collaborative attorney, collaborative divorce, collaborative family law, Collaborative Law, videoby Adam

The Association Romande de Droit Collaboratif (the Association of the French speaking part of Switzerland on Collaborative Law), has put together a fantastic whiteboard video that explains in simple terms collaborative law. The video is sponsored by Esprit d’entente and has been translated by collaborative guru Pauline Tesler. You can find the video below the jump.

Client Testimonial: Collaborative Divorce

August 21, 2015/0 Comments/in Collaborative Divorce, Family Law News, Family Lawyer Reviews / Testimonials //Tags: collaborative attorney, collaborative divorceby Adam

Family Diplomacy recently received a client testimonial on a case in which the parties used the collaborative divorce process. FLORIDA BAR DISCLAIMER: Please note that every case is different, and you may not receive the same or similar results.

Lawyer Adam Cordover | Top Attorney Divorce

You can find the client testimonial, originally entered on Avvo.com, below the jump.

Video: What is Collaborative Divorce? by Cypress Collaborative

August 20, 2015/0 Comments/in Collaborative Divorce //Tags: collaborative attorney, collaborative divorce, collaborative facilitator, collaborative family law, collaborative financial professional, Collaborative Law, collaborative mental health professionalby Adam

Collaborative divorce starts out with a pledge by both spouses: We will not fight one another in court. Each spouse hires his and her own attorney, and the two attorneys and two clients sign a participation agreement formalizing the pledge not to fight one another. The attorneys are then barred from filing any contested legal pleadings or appearing in any contested hearings on behalf of the clients.

In the most common collaborative divorce model that we use in Tampa Bay, a neutral facilitator, who generally has a mental health background, is retained to help the clients focus on the future and the issues (such as parenting) that are most important to them rather than the arguments of the past. Additionally, a financial professional is retained to cost-effectively ensure that each has retained sufficient financial disclosure (i.e., trust but verify) and to help them development financial options that are tailored to their family.

Cypress collaborative, a group of experienced collaborative professionals in Washington State, have put together a fantastic video that further explains the collaborative process. You can see the video after the jump.