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When It Is Best Not to Take Divorce to Court
Unless you’re willing to exhaust your financial resources on a full-blown court battle just to get a divorce, it could pay to first seek other less costly alternatives with the help of an experienced Orlando divorce attorney. Keep in mind that a petition for divorce can be very expensive.
In fact, a Divorce Statistics article reports that the average cost of getting divorced in the U.S. is $15,000—a substantial amount better spent on more basic necessities.
In addition to the huge cost, the process can also be very slow due to the congestion of court dockets. Sensitive information about your personal life will also be available to the public, either in an open court trial or through court records.
Furthermore, it can aggravate any bitterness the opposing parties may feel toward each other as the case progresses. Amicable communication, an essential factor in the future sharing of child custody, becomes less likely.
Collaborative Divorce – A Better Alternative
The collaborative law process, which an Orlando divorce lawyer from firms like McMichen, Cinami & Demps, can handle for you, offers a more practical way to get a divorce. Both parties, along with their lawyers, child custody specialists, financial experts, and mediators will sit together to settle all divorce issues covering spousal and child support, child custody and visitation, and division of properties. The collaborative law process is based on the concept of good faith, and promotes a cooperative rather than an adversarial approach to resolving the difficult issues at hand.
In a collaborative divorce, you and your partner will sign an agreement confirming your consent to settle all matters out of court. Both of you are also expected to honestly give all information relevant to the divorce, such as all your financial assets, even those which you might have kept secret during your time together. Information from experts (e.g. accountants) are confidential, and cannot be used if a litigated divorce eventually takes place. So as not to let the time, effort, and resources in a collaborative approach go to waste, you have to be resolved to be reasonable, fair, and respectful toward each other.
The main benefit of a collaborative divorce is that the spouses are able to gain control over the process and the pace at which the proceedings progress. You may speed up coming to a compromise on minor issues, and zero in on arriving at solutions for matters needing more consideration. Also, collaborative divorce offers a great deal of confidentiality that a court divorce does not. To sum things up, collaborative divorce gives you the freedom to decide on matters governing your separation, rather than allowing the court to make the decision for you.
(Source: How Much Does Divorce Cost In the USA? DivorceStatistics.info)
Contact Our Divorce Law Firm in Orlando, FL
Contact the experienced Orlando divorce lawyers at McMichen, Cinami & Demps today for legal assistance. Contact our Orlando, FL office at (407) 898-2161 to schedule a free consultation.
McMichen, Cinami & Demps – Orlando Office
1500 E Concord St
Orlando, FL 32803