Austin Collaborative Divorce Lawyers

Helping You Find the Best Resolution for Your Marriage

At Agreed Divorces, we help our clients find peaceful, dignified ways to dissolve their marriages. As part of our commitment to helping clients reduce the stress and conflict often associated with divorce, we use alternative dispute resolution methods to make the process less combative.

In a collaborative divorce, both partners use attorneys to work together and dissolve their marriage while protecting their rights. We're proud to offer our clients best-in-class Austin collaborative divorce lawyers who thoroughly understand the process.

To retain a consultation with an Austin collaborative divorce attorney and get started on your collaborative divorce, contact us online or via phone at (512) 628-2550 today.

What Is a Collaborative Divorce?

Many people routinely confuse collaborative divorce with other alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods, such as mediation.

In a collaborative divorce, each party chooses an attorney to represent them. These attorneys protect each party's rights and help them pursue their best interests throughout the divorce process. The parties and their attorneys then meet with each other to negotiate various divorce-related processes, such as property division, child support and custody, spousal support, etc.

Frequently, a financial professional such as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is also part of the process, helping the parties value assets and liabilities so they can divide them fairly. A parenting coach or family counselor is also usually present if the parties share children.

Collaborative divorce differs significantly from mediation, another popular ADR method. In mediation, a trained mediator works with both parties to help them come to a compromise. However, the mediator cannot give legal advice to either party—they must hire their own mediation lawyers to receive any sort of legal input. Additionally, mediation often occurs over a single day, whereas collaborative divorces often occur over several smaller, more spread-out meetings.

Collaborative divorce also differs from an uncontested divorce. In an uncontested divorce, the parties completely agree on how to dissolve their marriage and just need help finalizing the divorce. In a collaborative divorce, the parties may disagree on how to proceed with the divorce and use the collaboration process to reach an agreement.

Collaborative divorce offers parties a less stressful way to dissolve a marriage out of court. Understanding how collaborative divorce might benefit you can help you decide the best way to move forward with your divorce.

Is a Collaborative Divorce Right for Me?

No two divorces are the same. While mediation might work well for one couple, it may be disastrous for another. You may want to consider a collaborative divorce if:

• You don't think mediation is right for you. As we mentioned earlier, mediators can't give clients legal advice. If you want legal counsel during the divorce process, you'll need to hire an attorney anyway, so collaborative divorce may be a better option. Additionally, mediations often occur in a much shorter time frame. If you're not sure what you want from your divorce, a collaborative divorce gives you more time to understand divorce-related processes and identify what a favorable outcome would look like in your case.
• You're not sure what you don't know. While "Do-It-Yourself (DIY)" divorces may be appealing, the truth is, divorce is an immensely complicated process. Divorce decrees for families with children can often exceed 50 pages. The outcome of divorce-related processes like property division cases and child custody battles can affect the rest of your life, so you should invest in your divorce to ensure you don't make decisions you'll regret later down the line. A collaborative divorce lawyer can help you thoroughly understand divorce law and protect your rights, increasing your chances of a beneficial outcome.
• You want to avoid court. As a rule of thumb, the more contentious your divorce is, the more it will cost you. The average cost of a conventional, contested in-court divorce in Texas comes out to $23,500 if children are involved, or $15,600 if children don't play a role in the process. Out-of-court ADR methods, like collaborative divorce, can be much more cost-effective.
• You're confident you can work with your spouse. Collaborative divorce relies on cooperation between the parties. As a result, collaborative divorce is a great way to reduce the stress of divorce—but only if you're confident your partner will act in good faith. If one party tries to manipulate the other or make the divorce needlessly contentious, it can quickly derail a collaborative divorce.
• You have children and want to make the divorce easier for them. Divorce will always impact a child's life. Family counselors and parenting coaches typically play a role in collaborative divorces and can help families maintain positive relationships post-divorce. Collaborative divorces are inherently less stressful than in-court divorces since they focus on compromise instead of conflict, making them easier to deal with for children. Having access to professionals who can help children work through the complicated emotions associated with divorce and help both parties be better co-parents just further enhances the efficacy of collaborative divorce.

At Agreed Divorces, our Austin collaborative divorce attorneys stand ready to help you successfully navigate your collaborative divorce. We're committed to helping our clients find the least stressful, most cost-effective path towards dissolving their marriage.

To learn more about how we can help you or retain a consultation with one of our attorneys, contact us online or via phone at (512) 628-2550.