Articles | Seattle Divorce Services

A Different Kind of Family Law Firm

Yesterday I had another unsolicited resume sent in by an attorney who was interested in Seattle Divorce Services specifically because he really liked the way we resolve family law issues. In fact, several of our recent hires have been attorneys who wanted to leave their firms and join us primarily...

ADR Best Only If We Are Getting Along?

Many people assume that Alternative Dispute Resolution methods (like Mediation or Collaboration) won't work if the couple is not getting along well, and that their only option is heading straight to court. In fact, Mediation and Collaboration are actually designed for conflict management. Too ofte...

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...

What is Early Mediation?

Early Mediation is typically an intervention early in the case to try and keep from going into litigation. In other words, it is an attempt to see if the parties can work cooperatively to resolve the case before heading down the adversarial path. At this stage in the case, the parties are wanting...

On Leaving and Being Left

In most divorces, and indeed in most relationship breakups, there is a person who has chosen to leave the relationship and a person who is being left. A key difference between the person who is leaving and the person who is being left is that the person who has made the choice to leave has had all t...

Karen Bonnell on Holidays with Children

Karen Bonnell, a Bellevue based Collaborative divorce and co-parenting coach, was recently featured on King 5's New Day Northwest. Karen is a co-author with Kristin Little of the book The Co-Parent Handbook. In this video she talks about helping your children through the holidays after a parental...

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...

Dr. Phil on Co-Parenting

A friend recently pointed out an article with some good advice for divorcing parents. In "Dr. Phil: Dos and Don'ts For Co-Parenting With Your Ex", he makes a number of points about putting the children's best interests first. Some of my favorites are: Don't disparage each other or allow the child...

When Do We Need to Litigate?

Some couples are able to engage in a peaceful dispute resolution process such as Collaboration or facilitative Mediation to work out their own divorce agreements. However, for other couples that may not be a realistic option, in which case, it may be necessary to litigate. Litigation means using the...

Divorce and Children

I recently was alerted (thanks Daniel, Paul, and Rachel!) to an article on the Diefenbach, PLLC (New York divorce attorneys) website. The article is entitled "Divorce and Child Custody: It’s About the Child". It offers some good advice for divorcing parents. Some of the points I particularly liked w...