collaborative divorce teams can help settle a divorce out of court

Can Divorce Be Settled Out Of Court?

It may surprise people to learn that most divorces are actually settled out of court. Only when the parties are not able to reach an agreement does the case move on to a trial. My general estimate has been that maybe 2-3% of divorce cases actually go to trial. There are a number of methods for se...

The Collaboration Option – by Theresa Lorella

By Theresa Lorella Attorney at Seattle Divorce Services Many of the tools that have been discussed in the previous articles in this series that aid parties in lowering conflict and arriving at settlement agreements, have come to us from the world of Collaborative Law. Most Collaborative cases invol...
Young girl in pink jacket

Using a Child Specialist in Your Divorce

We often have a Child Specialist on the team in our Collaborative divorce cases. However, a Child Specialist can be very helpful in any divorce with children where the parents hope to be able to continue to work effectively together as co-parents after the divorce. A Child Specialist role is very...

Divorce Coaching

When couples want to have a more amicable divorce process, Divorce Coaching can help turn that hope into reality. We regularly use Divorce Coaches on Collaborative teams, but a Divorce Coach can also be very helpful to couples engaging in mediation or using a kitchen table approach. Divorce Coach...

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...

Jack and Jill get Divorced

I had a client a while back - we’ll call her Jill. Jill was married to Jack and they had a young son, Junior. Jack ran a successful business while Jill was working on developing her own career. However, a primary focus of both parties’ lives was their son. As parents do, they loved Junior very mu...