What is Cooperative Divorce Law?
Cooperative divorce does not have an exact definition. Historically, it is a term that we would apply to situations where divorcing parties settled their differences amicably and without a court fight.
Today, it seems to stand for two different settlement-oriented, non-court approaches to divorce. Some people use the term loosely to describe any no-fight divorce that the parties obtain by using either of the two more popular dispute resolution alternatives: mediation and collaborative law.
The other use of the term stands for a distinctively different and merging dispute resolution model -cooperative divorce law - which is well on its way toward joining ranks with mediation and collaborative law as the third, non-court way to divorce.
The new and mostly unannounced cooperative divorce law movement has indeed begun and is showing steady growth throughout the United States. Mediation and collaborative law are wonderful alternatives to our adversarial system of divorce. They legitimately save thousands of people incalculable amounts of pain and money, but they are not for everyone. It is believed that cooperative divorce law can and will fill this gap.
The rapid growth of mediation and collaborative law establishes that there is great public demand for less confrontational and less costly ways to divorce. Cooperative divorce law holds part of the answer and it may just show itself to be the future of divorce.
