Collaborative Law | Seattle Divorce Services

two young men talking to your spouse about collaborative divorce

How To Talk To Your Spouse About Collaborative Divorce

Collaborative Divorce is a voluntary process, which means that both parties need to agree to use the process. More than that, both parties need to believe this is the best way to move forward. If one is only paying lip service, participating only because it is what the other spouse wants, they do n...

Seattle Divorce Services - American Bar Association Book - Collaborative Divorce

Seattle Divorce Services Contributes To New Collaborative Book

We are pleased to announce that our founding attorney Michael Fancher is a contributing author to a recently published American Bar Association book for Collaborative professionals titled "Building a Successful Collaborative Family Law Practice"....

A Tale Of Two Divorces

A Litigation Story: Lori and Joe had been fighting off and on for the last year, too often in front of their children, Max (8) and Maggie (10). Finally, Lori told Joe that she wanted a divorce. Over the next couple of weeks, both met with and hired divorce lawyers. When they met with their respe...

Moving from Positions to Interests

At the recent annual conference of the Collaborative Professionals of Washington, I attended a workshop by Jacinta Gallant, a mediator and Collaborative lawyer from Prince Edward Island. One of the things she spoke about was the process of moving from positions to interests in negotiations. Positio...

Changing the Role of the Divorce Lawyer

Collaborative process is unique in that it fundamentally changes the role of the lawyer in divorce cases. Rather than being the mouthpiece for the client, the Collaborative lawyer supports the client in speaking for him or her self in direct discussions with their spouse or significant other....

Divorce (or Not) – a book by Joseph Shaub

I recently had the honor of being asked to preview a new book on divorce by my good friend Joseph Shaub. Joe is both an attorney and a family therapist. He has worked extensively as a divorce mediator, Collaborative divorce attorney, and Collaborative Divorce Coach. I have enjoyed working with him...

Collaboration – A Decision Making Model

A good friend recently pointed out to me that Collaboration may best be described as a Decision-Making Model. A divorcing couple has many decisions to make. These include decisions about property division, support, and if there are children, how to parent in separate households. In our state, how...

Collaborative Marriage Planning

At the annual Forum of the IACP (International Academy of Collaborative Professionals) this past weekend, I ran into a concept I really liked - Collaborative Marriage Planning, although it might better be called Collaborative Relationship Planning as it is really intended to help couples plan for th...

Collaborative Pre-Nups

I have been finding lately that the Collaborative process lends itself very well to helping soon to be married couples prepare Pre-Nuptial Agreements, or "Pre-Nups". Too often bringing lawyers into the process of drafting pre-nups can lead to friction between the couple. This can happen when one par...

What is Collaborative Divorce?

Collaborative Divorce is a method for managing conflict without a third party decision maker. We seek to help the parties handle their conflict without causing further damage to the relationship, and to help them transition their spouse/partner relationship into a new form of relationship, particula...