If you’re facing the end of your marriage and want an alternative to traditional litigation, your choice of attorney is important. You’ll want to seek out a Virginia Beach divorce attorney who offers collaborative divorce.
Collaborative divorce is increasing in popularity as couples seek out kinder, gentler methods to end their marriages. Traditional courtroom divorce is an adversarial process, meaning that the parties are against each other and in a contentious mindset. In alternative litigation like collaborative law, the divorcing parties agree to professional guidance and to cooperate with each other so that they can have a more peaceful divorce.
The goal of this type of litigation is to help the parties come to acceptable agreements on things like child custody, division of property, and other important matters. The parties don’t have to agree 100 percent on everything, as long as they are willing to compromise and be civil with each other.
In a collaborative divorce, the couple has access to a team of professionals who can help address the issues that commonly come up in a divorce. There’s a financial specialist and a child specialist, as well as the parties’ respective lawyers. The attorneys meet with their clients separately and have group meetings with the other spouse and his or her lawyer.
An Attorney’s Role in a Collaborative Divorce
The role of an attorney during a collaborative divorce is not much different than in a traditional divorce. The attorney’s job is to protect his or her client’s best interests and to advise the client on how the law applies to his or her case. The only difference in collaborative cases is that the attorney needs to be more creative when coming up with answers to clients’ complicated issues. Rather than simply thinking about “winning” for his or her side, the attorney needs to think outside the box and find acceptable and fair solutions that take both parties into consideration.
An attorney in a collaborative divorce will be working with other members of the team and will need to be a team player, respecting the other professionals and allowing them to voice their opinions.
The attorney, in some instances, may have to draw to a client’s attention behavior that may be counterproductive to negotiations and suggest alternative methods of handling the interaction.
Having a good attorney who you can work with is vital to the success of a case. When searching for lawyers to handle your case, you should consider a Virginia Beach divorce attorney who has experience and a good track record with collaborative divorce.
Contacting a Virginia Beach Divorce Attorney
Throughout your divorce proceedings, you’ll naturally have a lot of questions specific to your circumstances. Get your questions answered by requesting one of our free divorce guides for women or reserving your seat at our monthly divorce seminar.
The Virginia divorce attorneys at Hofheimer Family Law Firm are committed to fighting for your rights, assisting in child custody disputes, and advocating that you receive everything you are entitled to and need in order to start your new life – 1-757-425-5200.