Benefits of Choosing a Collaborative Divorce in Minnesota

A collaborative divorce is much like how it sounds. It is a way of handling divorce proceedings outside of a court room. If a court setting is all about fighting and winning, then a collaborative divorce would be more aptly described as troubleshooting and problem solving. However, while collaborative divorces are often advertised as the “simple” way to divorce, everyone should know that there is no such thing as a simple divorce. That being said, there are a number of benefits to choosing a collaborative divorce over a more traditional court room battle.

Collaborative Divorce as a Family Option

If you have young children or those that are easily upset, then the adjustment of a divorce is going to be a very difficult one. Young children need both structure and stability, and when it comes to divorcing in court, there will be neither.

If you don’t want to upset your family more than necessary, it may be worthwhile in engaging in a collaborative divorce. However, just because you don’t want to upset your family doesn’t mean you should allow yourself to get taken advantage of. If your ex-spouse is taking advantage of the fact that you don’t want to go to court in order to get more, you need to be ready to fight back.

Collaborative Divorce as a Time-Saving Option

When you head to court for divorce, you are not working on your schedule or even on the schedule of your lawyer. You are, without a doubt, working on the schedule of the court. As such, court dates could be scheduled up to months in the future depending on their schedule. Courts like to keep things timely, but that doesn’t always mean it will be so.

If you need to get a divorce quickly for whatever reason or simply want to get it over with, you will want to look for other options like mediation or collaborative divorce in order to avoid the courts and move things along quickly.

Collaborative Divorce as a Cost-Saving Measure

As collaborative divorces are quicker and stay out of the court room, you manage to dodge a staggering amount of fees. Not only will you need to pay your lawyer less for using less of their time, but you skip many court fees that come with divorce. If your marital estate is rather small, or you can both agree that you would rather have more of it stay in your pockets, then by avoiding traditional divorce proceedings you will save more money.

Collaborative Divorce for Control

Minnesota is an equitable division state, which means if couples cannot agree on asset division the courts will distribute the estate based on what they see is fair. This doesn’t necessarily mean it will be equal, however. If you want to protect your share of the assets or have various circumstances in which you might not want the courts dividing up your assets, a collaborative divorce allows divorcing couples to control the terms of the divorce and how the estate is split.

Most divorce cases go to court because the couples cannot agree on how to divide the assets. So if you can agree on it, a collaborative divorce can save money, time, and cut the stress of a divorce in half.

Seeking Legal Representation

Even if you choose a collaborative divorce, you will still need a lawyer to represent your interests. Both parties and their lawyers will sit down and try to come to an agreement on various aspects of a divorce, so when you do this, you want to make sure that you have the best representation. If you are in the Minneapolis area, contact us to see what Beckman Steen & Lungstrom can do for you.