Life’s changes bring important choices . . .
What if you could complete your divorce on your own terms outside of court according to your own timing? What if you and your spouse could create solutions tailored to your children’s needs, your finances, and your goals for the future? Collaborative Divorce professionals are committed to helping you create private solutions, based on your needs, your interests, and your goals. The Collaborative Divorce process empowers divorcing couples with an effective path toward a respectful end to their marriage, while creating a workable future for their family.
What is Collaborative Divorce?
Collaborative Divorce is a confidential, tailored approach to resolving divorce outside of court. A Collaborative Divorce team includes a neutral coach facilitator, a neutral financial expert, and a Collaborative lawyer for you and one for your spouse. Together, you all work to thoughtfully create workable solutions for your family’s future.
The Collaborative Divorce Option Is:
Private
Your family’s lives should be private. All information shared in a Collaborative Divorce is private and confidential. In most court-based divorces, details about your children, your finances / business, and your marriage become public. Collaborative Divorce provides an unmatched degree of confidentiality and privacy. Your decisions for your family stay with you.
Tailored
Your family is unique, and your divorce decisions should be tailored to our needs. Family Court Judges are limited in their approach and ability to craft creative solutions. Families can be left with unworkable results after a court-based divorce. With a Collaborative Divorce, the law is considered within a context that fits your needs on a practical level. With guidance from your collaborative team, you and your spouse craft options that are best for you and your family.
Respectful
By choosing Collaborative Divorce, you are committing to a respectful process, that supports you and your spouse in thoughtfully navigating the end of your marriage. The Collaborative Divorce team works to foster and maintain dignity for all involved, making sure the spouses are heard and all issues are considered. Collaborative Divorce builds on recognizing shared interests and leads to reaching mutual decisions.
Collaborative is Not Just for Divorce:
Paternity
Through a Collaborative, out-of-court process, unmarried parents can establish paternity, construct parenting plans, decide how to coparent, and agree how to share expenses for children.
Prenuptial/Postnuptial Agreements
A Collaborative process can help you be proactive about a possible future divorce. Whether you are about to be married or married and looking to define what will happen if you divorce, you can collaboratively establish guidelines for the possible end of your relationship in a private, thoughtful and creative way.
Family Changes - Modification
Life happens, and a Collaborative process can help you navigate foreseen and unforeseen post-divorce changes. Has your income changed? Is the other parent considering a big move? You can work together to craft new solutions.
Who We Are
Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council
MCLC is a professional organization – a diverse community of professionals dedicated to resolving legal disputes out of court. MCLC members are attorneys, mental health professionals, coach/facilitators, financial specialists, mediators, among others, who work within a team-based model to resolve conflicts.
Our focus is on problem solving that addresses the needs, interests, and goals of all participants. We aim to ensure a high level of professional integrity to benefit participants in Collaborative Law processes; we promote access to Collaborative Law across all demographics; and we prioritize inclusion of professionals committed to non-adversarial conflict resolution.