Collaborative Divorce 

 

When couples are engaging in a Collaborative Divorce Process, each of them is required to: 

 

• Respect each other’s goals and priorities;

• Provide full, open, voluntary, prompt and honest disclosure, and to update information as it changes whether asked to or not;

• Engage in honest, good faith, interest-based discussions;

• Engage in a good faith discussion about the collaborative team and consider the use of all professional disciplines;

• Retain experts (such as appraisers, financial professionals, etc.) jointly unless they agree otherwise;

• Keep confidential all conversations, meetings and information exchanged during collaborative sessions and all communications and information exchanged as part of the collaborative process, which means that neither party can disclose or share such minutes, information or conversations, other than signed Judicial Council Forms or jointly signed agreements, if any, to a third-party decision maker, such as a judge;

• Authorize their own attorneys to withdraw from the process (and therefore to withdraw from representation) if the attorney becomes aware that his or her client is engaging in bad faith tactics or concealing relevant information, and the attorney has been unable to persuade his or her client to disclose the information or resume negotiating in good faith;

• Refrain from requesting the court’s assistance (or the assistance of any third-party decision-maker) understanding that such assistance terminates the collaborative process and disqualifies the attorneys and all other members of the team from further participation in the case;

• (If children): Focus on their children’s best interests in a way that promotes a caring, loving and involved relationship between the children and each parent both now and in the future.