A Peaceful Family Restructuring with Collaborative Law
What started as a possible high-conflict divorce for a middle-aged couple with two pre-teen children ended with a peaceful outcome. So peaceful that both parents hosted their daughter’s birthday party just three weeks after the divorce was final.
In their situation, the husband wanted to relocate for a job promotion, but the wife wanted to stay in their family home that had significant sentimental value and was in the kids’ current school district. Both parties wanted to maintain a healthy relationship so they could co-parent their children together for the years to come so chose to utilize the Collaborative Law process.
Both parties signed a Participation Agreement to ensure they were committed to the process and reaching a settlement together. Besides hiring Collaborative Law Attorneys for each party, other professional team members involved were a Neutral Financial Professional, a Divorce Coach, and a Child Specialist. Their roles were to:
Neutral Financial Professional: Create an asset and debt summary and cashflow and run scenarios for the parties to consider based on their goals.
Divorce Coach: Provides support and helps the parties manage emotions, identify goals, and facilitate communication.
Child Specialist: A neutral party to give the children a voice without involving them in the conflict.
Both parties voluntarily shared all financial documents for the financial professional to evaluate. The Child Specialist helped the parents realize their shared goal to create stability for the kids during middle school rather than arguing over a parenting time schedule. The outcome was a nesting schedule which is a child-centered co-parenting strategy where the parents rotate according to a set schedule, and the children remain in the family home.
Even when emotions spiked, both parties made decisions together in a solutions-oriented and respectful manner to find a middle ground. Their new family structure was finalized in seven short months.