Collaborative Law Institute Blog – Family Law Attorneys & Professionals
Low Cost, High Quality Divorce the Collaborative Way
As a neutral child specialist, I believe Collaborative Practice should be available to all families who want a child-focused, respectful, out-of-court divorce process. However, a critique often made of Collaborative Practice is how unaffordable it must be for...
Keeping Children out of the Middle
A core value of Collaborative Team Practice is keeping children at the center and out of the middle. But what does this mean? Why this is distinction important? It is because divorcing parents are writing the life story their children will tell. Mindfully keeping...
Ex-Spouses Who Care
In the past few months, I have seen a number of people in my social network share this letter. It is a wonderfully written letter from an ex-Wife to her husband’s new girlfriend. Instead of the expected angry, hurtful, stay-away-from-my-children many people would have...
Retitling Assets Following Divorce
A large component of a divorce is dividing the assets that you and your spouse accumulated during your marriage. Now that the divorce decree is completed, it is essential to start retitling assets as soon as possible. Retitling of assets confers control by defining...
The Elephant in the Room
If a ring is a sign of marriage, should there be a sign for divorce? How do you handle simple social situations and interactions regarding your divorce? Do you come right out and tell people you are divorced, wait until it comes up in conversation, or ignore it...
What is a Collaborative Divorce?
Collaborative Divorce was started in Minnesota 25 years ago and has spread to more than 20 countries because it meets two basic needs felt by divorcing couples around the world. What does it mean to say that a divorce is Collaborative? First, it is important to...
Statistics on Divorce
There was an interesting article in the New York Times regarding divorce statistics. It theorized many different reasons the divorce rate seems to be decreasing in the United States. Perhaps, the economic downturn has caused couples to stay married longer rather than...
Peace is Possible
Peace is possible though we are surrounded by conflict. In the recent words of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, “The world is a mess.” Messiness occurs when people are unable or unwilling to resolve differences without wars of words or weapons. This...
Getting Unmarried and Taxes
Getting unmarried and taxes can become a consideration in terms of whether to have a divorce final by year-end or final after January 1. I have worked on a number of divorce cases where this very topic deserved a thorough analysis to determine which tax filing year to...
Divorce, College Funding and FAFSA
Parents with children who attend college get to take part in the annual ritual of filling out the Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA). The FAFSA can be nearly as difficult as Calculus 101, but unlike calculus this math, can have real implications to your life and...
