White Plains, Westchester County, New York Collaborative Law Divorce Attorney

What is Collaborative Law?

Collaborative Law is an alternative process to litigation for getting a divorce in New York and for settling disputes with the support and advocacy of a collaboratively trained attorney by your side outside of the adversarial court system. Joan A. Moo Young, Attorney at Law is a Family Law attorney who is trained in the Collaborative Law dispute resolution process.

How Collaborate Law Works in Divorce?

In the Collaborative Law process both parties mutually agree to use the Collaborative Law process instead of going to court. In the collaborative process the parties work through and resolve all the issues in their divorce, including fair and equitable sharing or distribution of the marital assets, valuation of marital assets, custody and parenting of the children, parental access and sharing parenting time for the non-custodial parent, child support, spousal and maintenance and all the shared financial responsibilities of the parties for the ex-spouse and the children.

In the Collaborative process each party is represented by an attorney trained in the Collaborative law process whose role is that of supporting the client’s voice and interest at the negotiation table and advising the client’s consideration in reaching resolutions that are mutually satisfying for the client, the other party and their family as a whole.

How the Collaborative Process Differs from Traditional Divorce Process?

A court divorce is driven by court procedures. It is adversarial, and frequently parties get embroiled in litigation that can be lengthy and costly financially and emotionally. Parties engage in the court process are usually armed with strong positions, such as “I want the house” or “I want sole custody of the children”. By choosing the Collaborative process, the parties are choosing a process that empowers each of them to directly and personally work through the difficult divorce issues by sitting at the table with their collaborative attorneys who provide legal advise and guidance on the law and who support the parties in their communication and understanding as they work out the division of assets, craft a parenting plan and meaningful parental access. Both parties actively engage with one another, exercising autonomy and judgment in making decisions, and doing so in an atmosphere that is transparent and respectful to one another.

The Collaborative process helps the parties look beyond their polarized and adversarial positions to deeper interest and needs, by providing an atmosphere that allows them to arrive at a resolutions that takes into account each person’s concerns, needs, interests, and what they, and they do so together, in accordance to what each person considers is best for themselves and the whole family.

Benefits of the Collaborative Process

In the Collaborative process it is the parties themselves, not the court, that decide how the marital and dissolution process will proceed and how the divorce issues and post divorce concerns will be resolved. As a result, the divorcing process moves much more quickly and at less cost to the parties financially and emotionally because court process and procedures are not used. Both parties receive the support and guidance of their collaborative attorneys, and when engaged, the Collaborative Interdisciplinary Team, to exercise autonomy in their decision-making, communicate better, and gain deeper understanding for effective management of the new realities they face after divorce.

What is the Interdisciplinary Team approach in Collaborative Divorce?

In the Collaborative Law process Joan A. Moo Young will recommend other professional experts to the parties, as they need. These specialists provide indispensible guidance on specific issues, such as a financial planner, to advise on complex financial and business matter that are affected by the divorce, or to educate on financial options to address the parties’ present and future needs, a mental health coach, to help the parties’ communication when emotions threaten to derail the process, or a child specialist, when the parties’ children are adversely affected by the divorce. The child specialist serves to support both the children and the distressed parents in handling the loss of the family structure and helps the family to structure new and effective ways of coping with their loss and to empower them through action.

The Interdisciplinary Team can include one or more or all of the aligned professionals who then work collaboratively to advise, coach, evaluate, counsel and support one or each of the parties in meeting their specific needs.

In the Collaborative process because each of the parties has their lawyers by their sides to provide legal advice and guidance, no one needs to go out of the process to seek legal advice or guidance.

The Collaborative process is lauded mostly for its ability to help parties preserve valued and caring relationships with each other going forward in the future. Unlike litigation which can foster discord and acrimony, the Collaborative process fosters functional relationship between ex-spouses, and when children are involved, the Collaborative process supports continued close and bonded parent-child relationships with the non-custodial parent or co-parenting by both parents, a respectful relationship between ex-spouses and parents.

Is the Collaborative Law process the right process for you? Do you have what it takes to successfully participate in the Collaborative Law process? To find out, take a survey by clicking this survey link.

Contact Joan A. Moo Young, Attorney at Law to learn more about the Collaborative process option for your divorce, or if you are seeking a Collaborative law attorney for your divorce.