Collaborative Family Law: A Commitment To Working Out Solutions
It’s a little ironic, the idea of working together to figure out your new life apart. But when divorcing spouses can engage in the right frame of mind, the resulting agreements will be better for everyone, including the children.
Collaborative law provides the environment for fruitful negotiation of divorce and custody issues, by sharing experts and taking litigation off the table. At the Law Firm of Mysti Murphy, you have trusted legal counsel at your side throughout the process to provide advice and solutions for moving forward. Call our San Antonio law office to learn more.
An Alternative To The Divorce Wars
Collaborative divorce is a unique approach that downplays conflicts and focuses on solutions. Similar to mediation, the process occurs out of court and gives you more control over the outcome.
- Each party is counseled by their own attorney who is trained in collaborative law.
- The spouses and attorneys agree — in writing — not to litigate. If either spouse withdraws, you will have to hire different lawyers to go to court.
- Rather than hiring competing experts, you agree to use the same professionals, such as an accountant, appraiser, custody evaluator or mental health counselor, for guidance.
Without the threat of litigation, there is less acrimony and manipulation. You can only go forward, which requires creativity, cooperative thinking and compromise from both sides.
Our Role In The Collaborative Process
Mysti Murphy is a problem solver with more than 20 years of experience in Texas family law. Her insights and strong personality help to keep negotiations productive by offering solutions for property division, parenting arrangements, alimony and other disputed issues that present barriers to agreement. Mysti helps you think long-term, setting aside emotions to reach a healthy co-parenting plan and sound financial decisions. Bottom line, she is still your lawyer, and will look out for your best interests while helping you find that elusive middle ground.
Is Collaborative Law Right For You?
We have seen superior results, but collaborative divorce is truly a “takes two to tango” method. It will only work if both sides are willing and able to commit to the process. We handle many high-asset divorces and high-conflict custody cases. Just because your divorce is complicated doesn’t mean it has to end up in court.
Call us today at 210-807-8227 or contact us online to discuss collaborative family law in more detail. We serve San Antonio and surrounding communities, with weekend and evening hours available by appointment. We also accept credit cards.
For couples who want to work together to settle their divorce, Texas law offers a distinctly different path from litigation—collaborative divorce. As a collaborative family law practitioner, I’ve personally seen the advantages of the collaborative process for many modern couples. In addition to being an experienced collaborative divorce practitioner, I’m also the editor of the State Bar of Texas book on collaborative law. You can read my introductory chapter.
Mediation is a settlement process where a neutral mediator helps couples reach agreement. It’s not a complete divorce process like collaborative divorce or litigation. People often find the distinctions confusing, so I’ve included explanations of mediation, collaborative divorce, and other divorce options.
Ms. Munsinger is the editor of Collaborative Law—Start to Finish from TexasBarBooks. She is also a contributing author to the book. Kim Munsinger wrote the introductory chapter, “What Is Collaborative Law?”
What is a collaborative divorce? A collaborative divorce is a divorce that uses the collaborative law process. This process looks at the divorce as a problem to be fixed instead of a fight to be won. Both sides will work together on settling the divorce and agree not to take any of the issues to court. The idea behind the collaborative divorce process is to avoid a litigated divorce and allow the lawyers to create a mutually agreed upon
settlement that works for both parties.
Benefits of collaborative divorce:
- Better control over costs. This is usually due to both parties sharing their private asset information, which allows the attorneys to skip the discovery process.
- More thoughtful. Throughout a collaborative divorce, the couple works together to reach a settlement that works for both parties. This mentality helps minimize potentially explosive feelings.
- Negotiation. Negotiations between the two parties allow both to reach a settlement agreement that works for them.
- The collaborative model is confidential. The Family’s personal and private business is not open to the general public.
How collaborative divorce works in Texas:
The first step of a collaborative divorce is for each party to hire their own attorney. The attorneys should both be trained in the collaborative law method and understand the negotiation process.
After this, each party should meet with their collaborative divorce attorney separately and identify their overall settlement goals. These goals will help the divorce attorney understand the limits for working with each individual asset affected by the negation process.
Once each party has an attorney and is ready to begin the divorce proceedings, they will begin regular meetings together, with their attorneys. These meetings will last as long as it takes to reach a settlement agreement or until such a time as either party wishes to move to litigation court.