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Center for Divorce Management
A Clearing House for Like-Minded Attorneys
Center for Divorce Management
A Clearing House for Like-Minded Attorneys
What is the Center for Divorce Management?
The Center for Divorce Management is a clearing house for like-minded attorneys in your county. Every member attorney shares the philosophy of the Center for Divorce Management: When there are children involved, the best divorce is one that ends with both parties being able to be in the same room and be civil to one another. Without giving up on any contested issue, the parties handle the case In as non-adversarial a manner as is possible, avoiding contested hearings as much as possible.
A Wise Divorce
The Center for Divorce Management was created as an effort to change the way divorces are handled in the United States, especially where children are involved. Divorce Management is an attempt to do what is really in the children’s best interests, without compromising your rights. The key is both parties having access to like-minded attorneys. If even one spouse hires the wrong attorney, then scorched earth, bitterness, and recrimination are soon to follow. Divorce Management allows you to pursue your best interests while minimizing the financial and emotional cost of a divorce. We help you divorce wisely, so you can save your resources for more important things. But, both sides have to agree on the process.
The Divorce Management Process
A contentious, bitter divorce is demonstrably detrimental to the children that are involved. Research shows that high conflict divorces lead to depression, anxiety, social withdrawal, and many other negative behaviors and outcomes for children. The Divorce Management process, however, helps divorcing couples minimize these negative effects. Your divorce is the single most important (and most difficult) act of co-parenting that you will ever engage in with your spouse. Your children are watching, and they are learning how to manage conflict from you in this process. What do you want them to learn? Do you want them to learn how to be petty and vindictive, or will they see you successfully keep the big picture in mind? Please realize that after the divorce, you and your spouse are still the only parents your children have. There will be numerous events in the future that will require parental cooperation. It is in your children’s best interests for you to divorce in a manner that allows effective co-parenting in the future. We believe that the Divorce Management process give you the very best chance of achieving that goal.
Getting Started
Each spouse picks a different attorney on the site, calling or emailing their respective choices to inform them of their interest in a Managed Divorce. The two attorneys will then contact one another and start the process. The parties will then sign an agreement to engage in a Managed Divorce and get the process started.
Initial Meeting
The case starts with an initial meeting that will include the parties and both attorneys. The meeting may include a Divorce Management mediator. If there is a need for a financial professional or counselor, then that may be arranged by agreement. At the initial meeting, the parties and their attorneys will determine what are the issues in the case and make a mutual decision about what information each party will need in order to make an informed decision about a settlement. Information is then exchanged in all aspects of the case. The parties will agree on a time frame to supply the relevant information to each other. Importantly, they will also negotiate how the parties will handle their property and children during the pendency of the case. This single part of the process avoids an adversarial temporary orders hearing. When an agreement is reached, the attorneys will reduce it to writing in the form of an agreed temporary order and will file it with the Court as soon as the case is filed.
Information Exchange
Once the temporary matters have been addressed, the parties work together to exchange the required information. This process should take no more than 60-90 days. After all relevant documents and information have been exchanged, the parties are then ready to finalize the case.
Settlement Conference / Mediation
After the parties have fully exchanged the necessary information, they then schedule a settlement conference to finalize the terms of the divorce. If there are seriously contentious issues, the parties will finalize the case with a Divorce Management Mediator. In either event, our experience has been that over 90% of cases get resolved at the final settlement conference or mediation. If the case cannot be settled, that does not mean that all bets are off. You can still manage the trial of disputed issues without the case going off the rails. In that case, the parties reach agreement on as many issues as they can and only submit the disputed issues to the Judge. This avoids much of the expense normally associated with a trial, because the parties have narrowed the issues to just the few items about which the parties cannot agree.
Trial Example
As an example of how you might manage a trial, suppose the parties have a legitimate disagreement on the characterization of a piece of property. They can agree on every other issue but not tis one thing. All other terms would be agreed to, and the attorneys would prepare two final decrees for the court to consider. In one decree, the property is construed ne way and in vice versa in the other decree. All other terms remain the same. The “trial” will then be short and sweet and only be about that one issue that is contested. In practice, parties end up spending thousands of dollars negotiating on an issue that can be decided by a judge in thirty minutes. Sometimes, the cheapest, fastest, and most efficient method of resolving an issue is to “tell it to the judge.” The parties need to judge to decide a contested issue, which saves time, energy, and money. This is the main difference between a managed divorce and the collaborative law process. In collaborative law cases, if there is an issue that cannot be resolved, then the parties are required to fire both attorneys and start all over with trial counsel. While this is a powerful incentive to agree, it can also act as a real impediment to reaching a final resolution in your case. We are not against collaborative law in any way. At the same time, a managed divorce may be a far more efficient method of getting a case resolved, without the normal expense of engaging in the collaborative rules.
It is also easier for parties to accept the result if a judge has listened to them, even if they lose on the issue presented. They have at least had their day in court and did not have a settlement shoved down their throat that they disagreed with. There is no shame in not agreeing or caving on an issue in a divorce. If the parties agreed on everything, they would most likely not be getting a divorce. As long as the case is presented without character assassination and heavy-handed tactics, a “trial” does not mean the end of the world. At the end of the testimony about the single issue, the Court then signs one or the other of the two decrees presented, and the case is over. These are the basics of a Managed Divorce, but each couple can negotiate the process that will work best for them. Every attorney who is a member of the Center for Divorce Management is fully qualified and has the experience to determine what will work best for you and your spouse in your particular case.