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A Canadian Participant Rates Collaborative Divorce as ? Not Cheap

By Janet Langjahr

Collaborative divorce has been enthusiastically embraced by many attorneys and other professionals serving people going through divorces.

Its primary virtues are touted as:

1. nonadversarial
2. less costly than litigation

Maybe, maybe not. It all depends on the particular case and parties.

One participant in the process in the Toronto Canada area felt moved to comment on a series of articles on collaborative divorce published in the local newspaper.

Her advice is “run as fast as you can in another direction”.

In her case, fees were reportedly estimated at $4,000 to $8,000. At the time of her letter, they exceed $15,000 “with no end in sight”.

Not inexpensive. More than she indicates she was led to believe. More than she bargained for.

But, of course, the only benchmark by which to judge the cost of collaborative divorce is what this woman’s legal fees would have been had she been a participant in a traditional, litigated divorce.

And still, that doesn’t address non-monetary, emotional costs or savings at all.

And her experience may not be typical. But it is worth considering.

Read more in this Toronto Star letter to the editor: Collaborative divorce not cheap.

Full post as published by Florida Divorce - Child Custody - Domestic Abuse Law on February 12, 2009 (boomark / email).