There is a different process available to families who are moving through the transition of divorce in Iowa. Litigation is not the only option and there is actually something called collaborative divorce. Believe it or not, there’s a process where parties commit not to litigate their case and move through the process reverently. It begins with a husband and wife who want to have a transparent and amicable process. They may not be there initially, but they seek out legal representation by people who are trained in collaborative law.
According to FindLaw, collaborative divorce is a formal process where divorcing couples use lawyers along with mental health professionals, financial specialists and child development specialists to work as a team to move through the process without ever having a step foot into a courtroom. Any couple can use this process, as long as they have the ability to move through the transition in the spirit of collaboration and they have agreed to the basics of getting the divorce.
If they have children, they may want to put their children at the forefront and may not want an exhausting, litigious, expensive process. To do this, they want value for the money that they invest in their divorce. According to Lawyers.com, one of the benefits of collaborative divorce is couples learn to communicate effectively for the first time. One of the reasons why they are even in the situation that they are in is because they are not able to communicate effectively. With the help of collaborative lawyers or collaborative divorce coaches, mental health professionals, they can be cognizant of those things and learn to communicate effectively for the first time, not only to enter into settlement negotiations with respect to their divorce, but to learn how to co-parent into the future.
