After you visualize what kind of divorce you would like to have you should consider how active you want to be in the process.
In this information age more and more people are taking charge of their lives – and their divorces. The days of blindly following the advice of your lawyer are numbered. This is especially true when it comes to divorce, since the decisions that that have to be made will effect how you, your soon-to-be-ex and your children live your lives.
Another fundamental difference in the processes is that in a traditional litigated divorce you have no control. Your lawyer decides what is important and your lawyer decides how to achieve it. And if the other lawyer doesn’t agree, a judge will decide for you.
In collaborative divorce and mediation you choose the process, you participate in making decisions and you control how much time and money is spent.
Teresa Ombres is a graduate of Fordham University and New York Law School and is admitted to the practice of law in the States of New York and New Jersey. She began her career in divorce and family law in 1981 and began mediating in 1996 after trainings in Community Mediation and Divorce Mediation.