While most people want to avoid a messy divorce battle in court, many couples are unsure about how to achieve this in their own divorce. You may be somewhat familiar with the benefits of divorce mediation, and you may have looked into getting an uncontested divorce, but before you make your decision, here is another process to consider: the collaborative divorce.

This is when each spouse retains a collaborative divorce attorney. These are attorneys who have been specifically trained to resolve a divorce amicably through negotiation. Each spouse and each attorney agrees to provide all the necessary disclosure, and to attend meetings in order to hammer out the details of the divorce settlement out of court. Everyone will also have agreed that if the collaborative method doesn't pan out, both attorneys will exit the process (unless perhaps they are also qualified to handle litigated divorce), and then both spouses will hire new attorneys to handle the divorce trial. This is a very general overview. You can get a better idea of the process through further research or contacting an attorney. In the meantime, here are few reasons you might want to consider this process in the first place.

1) A Litigated Divorce Can Be a Nightmare

This is true in a number of ways. Not only could you have to pay a boatload in legal fees, but you could be putting yourself through extreme stress while the trial eats up months, even years of your life. Perhaps worst of all, however, is how litigated divorces often turn both parties into the worst versions of themselves. No one is exempt from this. Many, many people who have actually "won" their divorce trial have gone on to say that they bitterly regret their conduct during the process.

2) Children Can Benefit from Collaborative Divorce

While a litigated divorce pits both parents in a battle against one another, a battle that often devolves into nitpicking the details of property division and alimony, a collaborative divorce helps divorcing spouses to still talk maturely to one another. This is a vital skill when it comes to co-parenting. Instead of continuing a pattern of conflict, a collaborative divorce can help exes foster a cooperative relationships from the start of the divorce, the ability to communicate to one another respectfully to reach a common goal. And the highest goal you two share together is your children. A collaborative divorce can save your children from trauma throughout the divorce and for the rest of their childhoods.

3) Collaborative Divorce Can Be More Objective

As emotional as a divorce is by nature, it is all the more important to get help from neutral professionals who can help you craft a fair settlement, not letting the emotions get in the way. And that is what collaborative divorce lawyers seek to accomplish. Financial experts can be a part of the equation too. Ideally, instead of getting caught up in pain, anger and stress, and ending up with a broken family after a tumultuous trial, you can find a reasonable manner in which to start a new chapter in your life, without burning any bridges.

If you want to find out more about collaborative divorce, you can find the qualified attorney you need on our site. You can also find the answers you need about other forms of amicable divorce, such as the mediated divorce or uncontested divorce. Learn more about you and your family's rights, and find the representation that you are looking for when you look through our family law directory today!