Splitsville News

This story on Austin, TX’s “News8Austin.com” site is some good news about Collaborative Law getting some coverage.

Collaborative Law is a process where the parties to a case, which is often a divorce case but doesn’t have to be, decide to commit to resolving the case outside of court.  That commitment is documented in the “Collaborative Participation Agreement” which says that the parties will not go to court.  If, despite the training and skill of the lawyers and other team members, the case still stalls and going to court is the only way to resolve the case, then the original parties have to withdraw.

The story, citing US Census Bureau data, says that 23 percent of people over age 15 (!) have been divorced at least once.  Divorce can–but doesn’t have to be–expensive and stressful.  Collaborative Law is one legal “tool” that gives divorcing clients a way to do something different.  When it’s a fit for clients, it’s “much easier on their wealth…it’s far less damaging to their children and people get better results from that process than they do through traditional litigation,” says spokesperson Kevin Fuller.

I’m glad to see that Collaborative Law is getting some coverage, and in a more thoughtful (and accurate) way than it was depicted in Juno.