By its very nature, a divorce implies that two people do not work well together in all situations. The challenges may range from financial struggles to marital infidelities and the resulting loss of trust and more. Whatever the reason that drives a couple to make the choice to get divorced, they must then make the choice in how to get divorced. The traditional litigated divorce may only serve to increase the level of conflict between spouses and further reduce their ability to collaborate. If they have children together whom they will need to co-parent after the divorce, this could spell disaster for the family.
Forbes recommends that separated and divorcing spouses find something to focus on as their primary goal. For parents, this could be the ongoing well-being of their children. By doing this, the spouses may have the ability to make use of less adversarial forms of divorce, such as mediation or collaborative divorce.
Both mediation and collaborative law allow couples to keep their divorce discussions and proceedings private, something that may be of particular importance to a spouse who owns a business or may have substantial wealth. Mediation involves a third party who works with spouses to guide them to develop their own divorce terms.
Collaborative law involves a more extensive team of professionals who may advise on financial, psychological and legal matters. Each spouse retains their own attorney and hires the mental health and financial team members. Like mediation, a couple utilizing collaborative divorce develops their own terms for divorce and final agreement, but under the guidance of these professionals.