When a marriage is over, it is often a time for things to get ugly. Sometimes, very ugly! Almost every adult Texan has seen such ugly scenarios play out at some point in their lives. The courtroom divorce can likewise add to the ugliness while the couple fights and picks over every detail and kicks and screams in and out the courtroom doors. No matter how you get to the divorce stage, you can still salvage an ugly situation from finishing ugly. Collaborative Law is a process that allows the … [Read more...]
Archives for 2015
Why Should Your Gay Divorce be Collaborative?
If you are reading this blog, you may be thinking, “How can lawyers start talking about gay divorce when the ink is barely dry on the gay marriage opinion?” Unfortunately, with the right to marry comes the right to divorce, and gay divorces have already begun across the country. As a family lawyer, I worry that my LGBTQ clients have had such a struggle clarifying their fundamental right to get married that there has been little to no focus on what happens when a marriages does not last a … [Read more...]
The Emotional Task of Divorce
Emotions During Divorce The decision to end your marriage is not just a legal proceeding, but an emotional task that will influence the agreements you make and determine the outcome of your divorce settlement. While different people experience their feelings in different ways, most would agree that the loss of any important relationship will result in an emotional response that could be as severe as that of a death in the family. Although this response is normal, the result is often distorted … [Read more...]
Keeping An Uncontested Divorce Through The Collaborative Process
Divorcing couples who want an uncontested divorce, but simply cannot agree on every detail, normally turn to the ugly side of divorce in litigation. But the noble side of keeping it uncontested can still be achieved through the use of collaborative law. One of the key goals of the collaborative method is to have a more positive outcome for the splitting couple, and this is accomplished by working toward a settlement agreement without resorting to court hearings and court orders at every step. … [Read more...]
Privacy – An Often Overlooked Benefit of Collaborative Law
Proponents of the collaborative law process often discuss reasons to use the process when they are talking to clients or prospective clients. They frequently mention potential cost savings, the ability to maintain control of the process and agreements related to the process, the ability to minimize damage to their relationship with the other party, learning to communicate better by going through the process, and so on. However, one benefit of collaborative law that often goes undiscussed, or … [Read more...]
Comparing Collaborative Law to Litigation
It is difficult to determine whether collaborative law is the right choice for obtaining your divorce if you have never been a party in a contested lawsuit. Litigation has common threads regardless of whether the case is one involving divorce, breach of contract, products liability or medical malpractice. All litigated cases have scheduling orders that require certain things to be done within a specified period of time. These include but are not limited to, written discovery, depositions, … [Read more...]
Max Meets Emma
Max Meets Emma - Learning about Blended Families from a Basset Hound’s Perspective By Jennifer Leister, LPC Having taught elementary school for 20 years, I have seen so many children struggle with their parents’ divorce and remarriage. I know even small changes can “rock a child’s world”. Max Meets Emma helps explain, through a Basset Hound’s eyes, how two families can blend into one new family. It is a wonderful story about new relationships, diversity and harmony. The illustrations … [Read more...]
Rules of the Divorce Game
Honorée Corder is a Texan who author of a number of books, including her newest, “If Divorce is a Game, These are the Rules.” During her own divorce, she had the same experiences that most divorced or divorcing people experience, and from that experience she learned some techniques that will be helpful in some way to nearly every divorced or divorcing person out there. With insight and humor, she can offer healing and hope to anyone who finds themselves in this situation, and she offers family … [Read more...]
Financial Concerns/Fears Surrounding Divorce
When asked ‘how healthy is your financial future’ what comes to mind? Are your thoughts more positive or negative in nature? Have you ever wondered why when making financial decisions you choose to take time to think it through verse rushing into a decision? And even then sometimes you still are unable to make a decision! Your financial concerns/fears can stop you dead-in-your-tracks and can even jeopardize your financial success. Financial decisions are a cognitively based process and … [Read more...]