What is Collaborative Law?

What is Collaborative Law?

by | Apr 11, 2018 | Alabama, Children, Divorce, Family, Family Law, Legal Advice, Mobile, Significant Decisions, Uncategorized

What is Collaborative Law?

Collaborative Law is a method of alternative dispute resolution wherein the parties commit to resolve their dispute out of court. Because parties to a divorce often need to have a continuing relationship due to co-parenting of children, Collaborative Law is ideally suited to divorce and other family law matters.

How is Collaborative Law Different?

A key difference between Collaborative Law and other forms of alternative dispute resolution, such as mediation, is the parties sign a participation agreement that sets out the parameters, including voluntary disclosure of financial information, mutual respect, insulating children from the dispute, sharing of experts such as mental health and financial professionals, and no litigation. Each party is represented by their own lawyer.

What are the Benefits of Collaborative Law?

The benefit of Collaborative Law is that you and your spouse or partner control the process and make final decisions; whereas, in litigation, the Judge controls the process and makes decisions for you. You also control the timetable which is most definitely not the case when you are involved in litigation. Collaborative Law is also private and litigation is not.

Collaborative Law is just now starting as a process in the Mobile area but has been taking place around the country and in Birmingham, Alabama, for several years. You can check out collaborativepractice.com for more information.

If Collaborative Law sounds like it may be right for your family, please contact us for a consultation. You can reach us by phone at 251-432-7909.

What Are the Benefits of Mediation in Family Law Cases?

What Are the Benefits of Mediation in Family Law Cases?

by | Mar 2, 2018 | Alabama, Divorce, Family, Family Law, Legal Advice, Mobile, Significant Decisions

Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution where a neutral third party, the mediator, facilitates you and the opposing party, typically your spouse or the other parent, in negotiating a settlement in your case. There are several potential benefits to mediation.

Benefits of Mediation

Privacy

Mediation is confidential. No one will know what goes on at the mediation except for the mediator, the parties and their attorneys. If you are able to negotiate a settlement, you do not have to air your dirty laundry in court.

Flexibility

You and your spouse or the other parent can negotiate a plan that is tailor-made for your needs and situation. You probably will not get that result from litigation.

Cost-Effective

If both parties are serious about resolving their differences out of court and coming to a settlement, mediation is typically far more cost-effective than protracted litigation.

Reduces Conflict

Mediation does not have the adversarial nature of litigation and can often reduce the conflict level between the parties. If you have to co-parent with this person in the future, less conflict in divorce helps contribute to a better long-term working relationship. In addition, there is a wealth of information out there that indicates that children of divorce fare far better when the conflict between the parents is kept to a minimum.

What is an uncontested divorce

What is an uncontested divorce

by | Jan 30, 2018 | Alabama, Divorce, Family Law, Legal Advice, Mobile, Significant Decisions

What is an uncontested divorce

People are often unsure of how the whole divorce process works in Mobile, Alabama. The term “uncontested divorce” refers to a divorce where the parties do not go to court, and the divorce is submitted solely on the written agreement of the parties.

If you retain Herlihy Family Law and one of our divorce attorneys in Mobile, Alabama for an “uncontested divorce,” it will be drafted and sent to you for review. Once you approve in final form, it will be sent to your spouse for their signature. Nothing is filed with the Court until the agreement is complete and signed by both parties, and the Defendant will not be formally served with anything.

This means that you and your spouse must be able to agree on 100% of the terms of your divorce, including custody and visitation, child support, the marital homeplace, and disposition of other assets and debts.

If you and your spouse do not agree on these major issues, then an uncontested divorce is probably not for you. I have certainly had clients over the years tell me, “we agree on everything except custody of the children.” Well, child custody is a major issue!

An uncontested divorce also does not afford the opportunity to conduct discovery, so if you don’t know anything about the family finances, then an uncontested divorce is probably not right for you. That being said, a case can start out as contested, and then eventually settle once both parties have the chance to get the information they need.

In sum, unless you and your spouse have open lines of communication, and you have discussed the divorce with them and are fairly certain you can agree, then it may not be wise to invest your valuable time and legal expenses on an uncontested divorce.

If you and your spouse have discussed and agreed on the terms, and you feel you have enough information to make an intelligent decision, then an uncontested divorce may be the route for you, as it is typically the quickest and least expensive way to get divorced.

What does joint custody mean

What does joint custody mean

by | Jan 8, 2018 | Alabama, Children, Custody, Divorce, Family, Family Law, Legal Advice, Mobile

What does joint custody mean

Wondering what does joint custody mean? Joint Custody is an arrangement where each parent has the children for equal (or close to equal) amounts of time. The most common schedule is that each parent has the children for one week at a time, typically exchanging the children on Fridays or Sundays. If you are considering a joint custody agreement with your soon-to-be former spouse or romantic partner, there are several factors you need to consider:

How do you make decisions?

Can you and the other parent truly cooperate and agree upon every major decision regarding the children? Maybe you can, but there is a distinct possibility you may not be able to do so for the many years to come. If this is a concern, you may need to name a “tiebreaker” parent for major decisions such as religion, education, medical/dental, and extracurricular activities.

Holidays

Each parent is going to want holiday time with the children. There may also be holidays that are important to one parent but not the other parent. For example, one parent may have a big family reunion on July 4th each year, while the other parent does not have any special activities that day. It may make sense for the parent with the family reunion to have that holiday. Other holidays may need to be divided up in a way that is fair to both the parents and the children.

Work and Activity Schedules

You need to be sure that joint custody will work for the work and activity schedules for your family. If one parent works overnight every night, and you have young children, joint custody is probably not appropriate. If the children have an activity that is at 6pm every Wednesday, but Dad always works until 7pm on Wednesdays, he may not need to have them on Wednesdays if he can’t get them to their activity.

Communication and Cooperation

Above all, communication and cooperation are key items in a joint custody arrangement. Both parents will have regular responsibility for making sure schoolwork is completed, medications are taken, and uniforms are sent back and forth as needed. This will require frequent communication and cooperation among the parents. If you cannot put aside your differences enough to work together on this level, then joint custody may not be for you.

What is abandonment in divorce

What is abandonment in divorce

by | Sep 19, 2017 | Alabama, Custody, Divorce, Family Law, Mortgage

What is abandonment in divorce

Wondering what is abandonment in divorce? On an almost daily basis, clients and potential clients say to me, I can’t move out of the house because that’s abandonment, right? I recently spoke at a CLE for other attorneys, most of whom do not primarily practice family law, and some of the attorneys even harbored this misconception. Many people believe that you can forfeit your interest in the marital homeplace by moving out.

Ala. Code §30-2-1 lists several grounds for divorce, including the following at part (3): For voluntary abandonment from bed and board for one year next preceding the filing of the complaint.

As you can see, simply moving out of the marital home when divorce is imminent does not meet the definition of abandonment under this statute. That being said, there are many factors to consider when making the decision to move out, including but not limited to the payment of household bills and custody of children, so it is essential to seek legal advice on your specific situation prior to packing your suitcase.

Hopefully, this helps answer the question of what is abandonment in divorce and gives you some peace of mind.