Nearly half of all marriages end up in divorce court. As anyone knows who has been involved in a messy divorce case, traditional divorce court proceedings are drawn-out, expensive, and emotionally draining for all family members involved. On the rare occasions when parties do settle a divorce case out of court, it is often in the shadow of a trial under conditions of considerable tension and anxiety.
Today there's a better way to deal with irretrievably broken marriages.
It's called Collaborative Law. Pioneered in California, collaborative law allows both parties to retain separate, specially trained lawyers whose job is to help them settle the dispute without court intervention. Neither side may go to court or even threaten to do so. If such an action or threat occurs, the process terminates and both lawyers are disqualified from any further involvement in the case. This year HALT will launch a national campaign to expand the availability of collaborative law.