Law Office of Joanne Kleiner

conflict resolution

Jul 09

Choosing Arbitration as an Alternative Conflict Resolution for Divorce

Arbitration Is a Cost-effective, Time-saving Divorce Resolution Method

Settling a divorce in a courtroom can take time and money, and not all couples want to take that route. Arbitration provides an alternative option to avoid going to court while still retaining some of the certainties that a trial can provide.

How Does Arbitration Work?

Arbitration is an alternative way to resolve divorce conflicts. For the process of arbitration, the spouses each work with a divorce lawyer, and they also hire a third-party arbitrator to make the final decisions regarding the case. Each party presents their arguments, evidence and witnesses, and then the arbitrator, who is often a lawyer or retired judge, makes the final decision. While similar to a trial in court, it differs from it since the parties need to agree on whether the arbitrator will rule on all or just some of the divorce issues, on the scheduling for the case and on the degree of formality of the case.

Benefits of Arbitration

Arbitration provides wide range of benefits that make it attractive to many couples. Some of these benefits include:

  • Faster divorce resolution
  • Less expensive
  • Privacy and discretion
  • Informality of the process
  • Collaboration between the spouses
  • Certainty of a binding judgement

The Cost of a Trial Versus Arbitration

A divorce can cost thousands of dollars. When couples end up going to court to battle to settle their divorce issues, the cost can increase and even become prohibitive. Arbitration can help couples save money since the process itself takes less time from start to finish. Since couples do not need to wait to schedule a court date based on the judge’s calendar and each divorce lawyer needs less time to prepare for the case, arbitration becomes a more cost-effective option. Preparation for arbitration is somewhat less formal than for a court case, so the lawyers, who are often paid hourly, can spend less time preparing to present their client’s case.

Privacy and Discretion Are Important

The court records of divorces resolved by arbitration are public. However, the actual process is completed in private, which means that you can retain general privacy and discretion about your life, unlike a trial, which is open to the public. When you are negotiating how to divide your assets or how much financial support should be paid, discretion is important. Privacy can also be very valuable when the divorcing couple are parents, who want their issues and their children’s information to remain private.

Arbitration Can Be Helpful When There Are Children Involved in the Divorce

During divorce arbitration, parents can also resolve issues related to child custody and support. If both parties can come to an agreement focusing on the best interests of their children, the resolution of the arbitrator will be accepted by the court. However, if the court decides that the children’s best interests were not served by the judgment, then the court reserves the right to revert the arbitration for those issues.

However, when parents use arbitration to resolve their divorce issues, they also need to agree to the arbitration, hire the arbitrator and accept the rules for their arbitration. This can also benefit their children, who can witness their parents collaborating even as they are negotiating the dissolution of their marriage. Collaboration between the parents tells children that their parents are still willing to work together to resolve issues, something that will come in handy as they move forward with parenting after divorce. It also spares them the emotional trauma of a court battle.

Not all divorce cases need to end up in a contentious trial. Choosing an alternative method of conflict resolution such as arbitration can save you time, money and stress. You can learn more by contacting us at the Law Office of Joanne Kleiner at 215-886-1266 or via our website. Our offices are located in Jenkintown, and we will reach out to schedule a consultation.

Sep 25

How Collaboration Results in Better Divorces

Collaboration and the Future of Divorce

The International Academy of Collaborative Professionals is a community of legal, financial, mental health and other professionals committed to utilizing a collaborative approach to conflict resolution. The IACP now comprises thousands of attorneys who focus on collaborative law. The organization predicts that collaboration will become the default approach to divorce in the U.S. as it becomes more accessible and gains more visibility.

What Is Collaborative Law?

This type of law essentially is a more structured approach to mediation. Each party has his or her own representation, and those representatives work with the parties to assemble a support team. That team assists the parties in moving toward the desired resolution in a manner that serves everyone well. In the domain of divorce, it is a means through which a married couple can separate legally without the involvement of the court in a way that has the children’s and each other’s best interests in mind. The support team for a collaborative divorce will include legal representation, but it can also include:

  • Tax experts
  • Social workers
  • Child specialists
  • Financial advisors
  • Real estate evaluators
  • Mental health professionals

Benefits of the Collaborative Approach

Collaborative divorces are suitable for opposite- and same-sex couples, and they can be particularly desirable in the latter due to the additional challenges often present in same-sex divorces. This process involves a team working together to achieve the best possible resolution for everyone involved. That may sound like it requires a lot of money, but the reality is that litigation is quite expensive and often costs much more than collaboration no matter how diverse the support team. The collaborative process does require that everyone be present, involved and committed to working together. When those conditions are met, there are many ways that this process can be beneficial. Some of the additional advantages of collaborative divorces include:

  • The ability to preserve relationships
  • Cheaper costs and less time
  • Lack of court-imposed deadlines
  • Resolutions remain private
  • An emphasis on areas of mutual benefit
  • Agreements made in a forward-focused manner

Collaboration Versus Mediation

Both collaboration and mediation provide a non-adversarial vehicle for divorce. Collaboration is often viewed as a more structured form of mediation. Mediation, therefore, can be viewed as providing more flexibility. After all, it only requires three parties: an attorney and the divorcing couple. That structure, however, provides many benefits, such as having a mental health professional ensure that the couple and the children are going through this process in a manner that is healthy for them now and also over the long term. Perhaps another way to appreciate the difference is that mediation focuses on the efforts of the mediator while collaboration focuses on the efforts of the couple.

Collaboration Is Not Necessarily Easier

When it comes to divorce, teamwork generally produces more productive results. IACP statistics show that most collaborations conclude in under nine months while cases involving mediation and/or litigation take much longer on average. That does not mean that collaboration is easy. A collaborative divorce can require a lot of hard work. Nevertheless, that hard work is channeled in a positive way toward establishing the basis for everyone involved to have healthy relationships post-divorce.

The Future of Collaboration

Collaboration has achieved so much success in domestic relations in recent years that there has been a movement to apply these concepts in other domains. The U.S. government has started to train federal employees in this field, and other legal areas where this is being explored as an alternative dispute resolution tactic include probate and real estate.

Explore a Collaborative Approach Today

If you and your partner have decided to separate or divorce, then collaborative law can give you control and provide the tools and resources to move forward in a happy and healthy manner. At Joanne Kleiner & Associates, we focus on Pennsylvania family and divorce law and have helped many couples achieve a mutually beneficial resolution. Contact us online, or call our office in Jenkintown at (215) 886-1266 today to set up a consultation.