A Mom in Durham, NC recently lost custody of her children because she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  In an extremely sad case, and yet another shining example of why collaborative law is such a promising tool for resolving family law conflicts, Alaina Giordano has lost custody of her two children because of a terminal breast cancer diagnosis.

Judge Nancy Gordon gave custody of the children to Ms. Giordano’s abusive husband who now resides in Chicago in part because “the course of [Ms. Giordano's] disease is unknown, and “children who have a parent with cancer need more contact with the non-ill parent.”

This case illustrates just how important it is to consider collaborative law, especially when there are children involved.  Even when you think you have a rock-solid custody case, a Judge can very easily grant custody to the other parent – and you can’t predict when this is going to happen.

However, in a collaborative case, the parents have control over the process, the decisions that are made, and the parenting arrangement, all with the help of a mental health professional that is trained to handle custody related conflicts.