The Fort Worth Business Press how to work through complicated divorce issues with collaborative divorce attorneys.
Leslie Wimmer writes (excerpt):
In traditional cases “you have mom and dad either going to court or preparing to go to court and more or less preparing to say every bad thing the other parent did, every flaw in their character, every flaw in their personality,” Fuller said. “And they are organizing friends and family to come testify as to the other party’s shortcomings. At the end of the day, it’s a very destructive environment and it’s impossible for families after contested litigation to comfortably function at children’s birthday parties, high school graduations, holidays, sporting events, school events, all of those become uncomfortable for everyone, especially the children.”
In collaborative law, attorneys work with both clients in a room together to focus on the future and work to plan out finances or other complicated issues, Fuller said, adding financial advisers, property appraisers and other professionals often are brought in to help clients work out those issues.
“It’s completely different, instead of focusing on the past, you focus on the future: How are we going to function as a family with our children? How are we going to make financial arrangements work as best as they can?” Fuller said.