Collaborative Divorce
Collaborative divorce is a new, cost-effective way to terminate your marriage through settlement negotiations, without involving costly and time-consuming litigation. The goal of collaborative divorce is to promote respect, emphasize the needs of children, and allow the spouses more control over the process.
A collaborative divorce involves a series of four-way conferences where you and your entire family’s interests are identified and protected. The process spares you and your children the emotional stress and anxiety associated with litigation, while still ensuring that such issues as custody, spousal support, child support, and visitation are resolved successfully for you.
Mediation
In a mediated divorce, the parties work with a trained family law mediator to resolve their differences, sometimes with guidance from attorneys regarding their rights and obligations.
Mediation is very participant driven. The spouses, with the help of the mediator, define their interests and arrive at a mutually beneficial resolution. Often, families in mediation consult with an attorney only after the principles of a settlement are already defined.
Principled/Facilitated Negotiation
The essence of each of these two processes is the ongoing engagement of both husband and wife, with their respective attorneys playing complementary, and somewhat fluid, roles. There may be meetings conducted with all four people (husband, wife, and both of their lawyers) as well as some meetings only between the attorneys.
In a principled negotiation, the spouses and their attorneys agree on a time frame and certain ground rules to resolve issues without a mediator. In a facilitated negotiation, the spouses and their attorneys agree to a negotiation with a neutral third party to oversee the process and possibly settle certain issues.
Arbitration
Arbitration is in many ways the opposite of mediation. In arbitration, the parties take a back seat to their lawyers who essentially "try" their case to a neutral third-party. This is simply a less formal and more efficient private form of dispute resolution. Both parties, through their respective counsel, choose an arbitrator who listens to their disputed issues and analyzes the presented evidence. At the conclusion of each party's presentation, the arbitrator issues a decision. Depending upon the style of arbitration, this decision could be binding or non-binding.
Litigation
In the unlikely event that your divorce cannot be resolved through a collaboration or another alternative dispute resolution method, Rieth Antonelli & Raj will develop and implement an aggressive litigation strategy to achieve your desired result.