Four approaches to getting divorced
Flat fee, uncontested divorce
Mostly, in cases where there are no children and no assets to divide, it is probably a short-term marriage. The spouses can do it themselves. They don’t need really an attorney. They can go to the courthouse, file the paperwork, and we actually offer a free form in our website that they can download and review to check if they, you know, they are good, fit for an uncontested if everything is in agreement and, they can probably do it themselves.
Certified family mediation
Certified mediator. If the spouses want to sit together with a neutral facilitator, then we can discuss what the issues are. My role in that case is not to give legal advice to either one but to facilitate a resolution. And that works very well when they are amicable, and they want to save on costs. It’s a very good option.
Collaborative divorce
They collaboratively divorce. Each spouse retains an attorney that has special certification to be a collaborative attorney. In that case, what we do is sign what is called a participation agreement. The two attorneys and the two spouses. And we commit to resolving the case out of court. Everything is done out of court. And when the final agreement is reached, we file it, and we move forward to contest the final hearing.
Conventional divorce
This is the typical and most common case where one spouse comes, and there are issues, whether it is about children, whether it is about equal distribution support, and the spouses are not in agreement. So one, spouses retain my services. Sometimes, we need to involve other professionals, such as forensic accountants, to do this to find assets.
All those types of things, there may be disputes about the children, what is best for them or not? And those all those things involve a much longer process, and that is, basically, what we do and would represent the client to try to get the best for them.
