Part II -Divorce in America was on a collaborative process called Collaborative Law whereby the parties get lawyers who help them sit down and negotiate a settlement and avoid court and judge. The agreement is that if they can't reach settlement, the two attorneys cannot represent them in their adversarial action or in any further divorce action. So if they can't work things out, they have to start all over with new lawyers. The piece said instead of spending 15 to 20 thousand on a divorce the average cost for a Collaborative Law divorce is 2 to 3 thousand. Diane, Jt custody has been around a long time.
Some children do well.
Others do poorly. Some children do well at some developmental stages and less well at others. A lot depends on how distant the parents are from each other and how much the child's social and educational life gets disrupted by the travel. I'm not sure joint custody cuts down on divorce. Its been around a while, as I say in many States.