Elder Law

McGreevey divorce leads to upsurge in interest in mediation and collaborative divorce

By dvanar

The highly publicized McGreevey divorce dispute has served as a wake-up call for at least a few couples who have realized this is a road they don’t want to go down. Divorcing couples, seeing that spectacle in the newspaper and on TV, realize that they don’t want to be like that and don’t want to drag their families through the pain and stress involved in a litigated divorce. As a result, lawyers who practice in the areas of mediation and collaborative family law are reporting an uptick in calls from clients who cite the McGreeveys as the reason they want to avoid the litigated divorce.

In a collaborative divorce, both sides agree to avoid formal litigation as a means of deciding custody and support issues. Instead, a negotiating team includes one accountant instead of his-and-her dueling accountants, one child expert instead of two. Its goal is a divorce that is quicker, cheaper and less destructive to the parties and their children.

For more information, see this recent article from the NJ.com website -McGreeveys: A model of how not to break up - NJVoices: Kathleen O’Brien

Full post as published by Law Office of Donald D. Vanarelli Blog on June 11, 2008 (boomark / email).