Why I Believe In Collaborative Divorce

By Scott Levin

I was collaboratively trained in 2013 after I heard about it while I was in a training session in LA for mediation and a couple of people were talking about it.

The experience I had training for collaborative was interesting and there were a lot of people at the training.

During the lunch session, I sat down near this attorney who was attending the training and who was a litigator for 25 years.  His take on collaborative is that this won’t work and people don’t want this.

I couldn’t figure out why anyone wouldn’t want this.  Navigating a high-conflict, high-asset divorce with children involved can definitely be tricky. Traditional litigation and mediation often fall short in these complex cases, especially when emotions run high and negotiations become tangled. In litigation it’s who wins and who loses.  In mediation there needs to be agreement on almost everything.  This is where the collaborative law process can make a profound difference.

And not only in high-conflict, high-asset cases, either.  Any divorce can start out amicable and take a turn as emotions can run high in any divorce situation.  Having the mental health professionals available to work through an emotional situation – with the couple and/or their children, as well as having them help develop co-parenting plans, can be the key.  Also having a neutral financial professional to explain to everyone what financial information was involved now and provide guidance into the future is priceless.

That’s why I feel that if you are getting a divorce, collaborative divorce is best for all involved.

Being part of a Collaborative group is not for every professional, of course.  Everyone on the collaborative team needs to be trained and approved by the collaborative group and requires a certain skillset and good reputation.

Recently I was part of a collaborative case that was a high-conflict, high-asset situation with children involved.  They had already tried litigation and mediation and were now attempting collaborative.

The divorce was resolved through the collaborative approach mainly due to the coaches that were part of the team.  The benefit of having coaches on a collaborative team is that they can coach the couple in real time, while we were all working together and negotiating, whereas when someone is getting therapy on the outside, it doesn’t have that immediate impact that a case like that one really needed.  In collaborative, the attorneys want the best for the couple and their family, and when they are struggling  with the emotional side of divorce, collaboratively trained attorneys try to acknowledge that emotion and the coaches are there to help the couple.  In the case I was involved in, having a coach there allowed them to address their concerns and feelings, which in turn allowed the divorce to move forward amicably.  I’m convinced that the favorable outcome they had would never have happened outside of collaborative.

That was just one of many cases I’ve had the privilege of being involved in as a collaborative attorney, and knowing that this process can have a much better outcome and help keep the family in tact is extremely rewarding.

Scott Levin, Esq., CDFA
858-255-1321
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