I guess these things aren’t quite official until there is a press release about it. Just announced – myself and four other Raleigh Divorce Lawyers have joined Separating Together, a Collaborative Family Law Practice Group in Raleigh, North Carolina.
All of us have pledged to restrict our law practices to resolving family law matters without involving the courts. According to the press release, “The attorneys guide both high and low conflict clients towards mutually beneficial agreements through the practice of non-adversarial, transformative conflict resolution and settlement negotiation, including collaborative divorce and mediation; thus, separation and divorce agreements are achieved with dignity, respect, privacy, and without going to court.”
Separating Together now consists of the following Raleigh Divorce Attorneys: Mark Springfield, Jeffrey Seigle, Martha Mason, Adrian Davis, Kerry Burleigh, Aida Doss Havel, Deborah Throm, Tré Morgan, and yours truly, James Hart.
One of the main reasons I chose to join Separating Together is that I have a fundamental problem with the way family law cases are handled in the courts. The court system is expensive, stressful to everyone involved (including the attorneys), and ultimately assists in tearing families apart rather than helping them to peacefully resolve their divorce. In the press release, Jeff Seigle, co-founder of Separating Together, says, “I was involved in the adversarial process where there was normally a winner and a loser. The spouses were left financially and emotionally bereft by the court system. They had not learned how to work together, so they had to go back to court to resolve additional co-parenting and financial support differences that arose over time.” I couldn’t agree more.
I personally have found that by when parties are able to work together in a collaborative divorce process, they are able to maintain more control over the the outcome of the process, whether we are discussing co-parenting issues, financial support, or property division.
Lots of attorneys advertise that they will handle a collaborative divorce. However, “a true collaborative divorce includes two specially trained attorneys, and the option of including co-parenting advisors, a child specialist, and a financial specialist. Without going to court, collaborative divorce provides a less destructive and more moderate process with a focus on the future well-being of the family.”