Step 1: Understanding the Collaborative Divorce Process
Your Collaborative Attorney typically spends a substantial portion of the first meeting with you describing the Collaborative Divorce Process and other Collaborative team members.
At the first meeting with clients and professionals, the clients and professionals (Collaborative Attorneys and any other members of your Collaborative Team that you have agreed should be present at this first meeting) review the process and tools. The Collaborative Divorce Process documents are then signed by all participants. The Collaborative Divorce Process is more likely to succeed when the participants understand and commit to the process together. The CDS Guidebook is provided and introduced.
Step 2: Information Gathering Stage
The first task in the Collaborative Divorce process is to gather information to assist you and your professionals in developing a creative and appropriate settlement. It is not just helpful, it is mandatory in order to be divorced in California.
Each party in a California divorce must give the other party his/her “Preliminary Declaration of Disclosure.” This is part of the legal requirement that each spouse share with the other spouse his/her understanding of the marital assets and debts, separate property assets and debts, incomes, and potential opportunities and/or liabilities. There are specific forms that are used to disclose this information. A Final Declaration of Disclosure is normally completed and exchanged before the end of the process.
If you are working just with attorneys, they will provide you with your initial “homework” (forms and questionnaires) to assist you in gathering this information. If you have chosen to work with a financial professional, this professional will give you those forms and guide you through the disclosure process. The professionals and clients will together determine what additional information or documents will need to be gathered and who will be responsible for which items.
Sometimes a third party will need to be contacted to provide records or to appraise an asset. The work of the professionals will be coordinated to provide you with the best possible assistance in the most cost-effective manner.
Step 3: Temporary arrangements
Clients often need immediate agreements for financial support, parenting arrangements, and/or management of assets and debts. Either formal or informal agreements can be reached during the Collaborative Divorce Process. An informal agreement is usually captured in the minutes, and may not be written up or signed. Even so, the clients’ commitment to the Collaborative Divorce process bind them ethically to follow through.
A formal agreement can be either in the form of a written agreement or can be a “Stipulation” which will be submitted to the court to issue a temporary order.
Step 4: Filing and Service of the Petition
The Petition is the initial step in starting the legal dissolution process in the court system. There is no specific requirement regarding when during the Collaborative Divorce Process a Petition is filed, but it must be filed in order to ultimately obtain a Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage. The only time frame which may be a consideration is that there is a minimum of six months between the date the Petition is received by the Respondent and the date the parties can be restored to the status of single persons. This can have tax and other implications which may affect the timing of the filing of the Petition.
The Petition, in general terms, sets forth statistical details and “requests” regarding child custody, support, property, and attorney fees. These “requests” are not intended to cause the other party any distress, but are simply there to serve as an outline of what the issues might be if the matter were to end up being tried. For so long as you are participating in the Collaborative Divorce Process, the court will take no action on these “requests”.
When the Petition is filed, the parties will be assigned a case number and file within the court system. A Petition must be “served” on the “Respondent”, the person who did not file the Petition. The easiest method is for someone other than the Petitioner to mail the Petition and Summons, along with a form entitled “Notice and Acknowledgment of Receipt”, directly to the Respondent instead of personally handing the papers to the Respondent. Once the Respondent signifies that s/he has received the Petition by signing and returning the Notice and Acknowledgment of Receipt, he/she has been effectively served. Alternatively, the parties can agree that the Summons and Petition will be handed to the Respondent during a collaborative meeting.
Technically, a Response must be served and filed within thirty (30) days of the service date of the Petition. Like the Petition, the Response sets forth the Respondent’s information and “requests” regarding all issues. It is typical during the Collaborative Divorce Process for an “open extension” to be granted. This means that the Respondent will not be required to serve and file the Response unless the Petitioner gives notice that a Response will be required.
Step 5: Exploring the Interests, Needs, and Values of the Participants
Once all factual information has been gathered and the spouses have exchanged information regarding their interests, needs, and values, the spouses and Collaborative team of professionals can begin to brainstorm possible settlement options.
During the brainstorming phase, Financial Specialists can provide projections regarding the impact of different options. Coaches help facilitate the process.
There are often many ways of putting together the “pieces of the puzzle”, and an open-minded discussion of all the possibilities usually leads to the discovery of a good fit for your circumstances.
Step 6: Brainstorming Settlement Possibilities and Negotiating a Settlement
Once you have reached an agreement, the Collaborative Attorneys will prepare a Marital Settlement Agreement and any other settlement documents for your review. During this time period, a Final Declaration of Disclosure will be prepared, unless both spouses agree to waive its exchange. When everyone has agreed on the agreement and necessary court forms are signed and submitted to the court.
Occasionally, a Judgment is separated into parts. You may have one Judgment terminating your marital status (usually referred to as a “bifurcation”), and a separate Judgment on reserved issues (i.e. support, parenting and division of property). Together, these papers resolve all issues of your divorce.
This is only a general outline of the typical marital dissolution process. Each couple’s divorce is unique in its own way. Although the divorce process may be confusing and frustrating at times, our goal is to assist you both in reaching a satisfactory resolution.