Helping Divorce Couples Resolve Conflice Peacefully.
For many couples, it makes sense to try to work things out first, instead of filing in court before you’ve even tried to talk. You have choices about what kind of conversations you and your spouse will have about the issues that are important to you and your family.
Choosing the right process for working on your divorce or other family law matter is an important decision. In order to make the best choice for you and your family, you will want to consider all your options. You may even be surprised at how many options are available to you. There isn’t any right or wrong process. What works for one couple or one family isn’t necessarily the best option for somebody else.
Whether you are involved in a divorce (dissolution of marriage), a modification of a divorce issue (such as custody, child support, or maintenance), a paternity matter, or some other family law issue, it is important for you to know and understand the options available to you so you can make the best possible choices for yourself and your children.
At The Center for Collaborative Law & Mediation, Yvonne Homeyer offers her divorce and family law clients a wide range of settlement-oriented options and tools for working through their legal issues. These options include:
- “Kitchen Table” or “Informal” Negotiations
- Divorce Mediation
- Collaborative Divorce
All of these models have certain elements in common, including:
- All efforts are focused on settlement.
- The emphasis is on personal transition and family restructuring.
- You can maintain control over outcomes and decisions.
- You can construct solutions that are right for you and for your family.
- You can focus on the future instead of fight about the past.
- You can maintain control over the cost.
Collaborative Divorce is a non-adversarial process in which each person is represented by his or her own attorney. The spouses and their collaborative attorneys pledge to negotiate in good faith in a series of four-way meetings until an agreement is reached on all the issues. The spouses and their collaborative attorneys also pledge not to go to court (except for filing a non-contested divorce at the end of a successful collaborative divorce matter.) Each spouse is under a duty to fully disclose all relevant financial information and documents, past and present. Information is transparent so both spouses know the same information when making decisions. There are no financial secrets in the collaborative process. In collaborative negotiations, the spouses promise to negotiate in good faith to reach an agreement that is acceptable to both spouses.
When both spouses are at the same table talking, communication is more efficient. In the collaborative process, the clients are at the center of the communication. The clients also control how often they meet, when they meet, and what “homework” each will do before the next meeting. The clients are not controlled by anyone else’s agenda or calendar but their own.
Yvonne Homeyer is a collaboratively trained attorney who has worked with clients in both the attorney-only collaborative model as well as the integrated interdisciplinary Team approach. Her article entitled “Collaborative Law: Good News, Bad News, or No News?” was published in the St. Louis Bar Journal (Spring 2009). Ms. Homeyer serves as the Chairperson of the Missouri Bar’s Collaborative Law Subcommittee. She is the Vice President of the Collaborative Family Law Association based in the Saint Louis area and a member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, the Association of Missouri Mediators, the Association of Family & Conciliation Courts, and the Association for Conflict Resolution.
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