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Attorney group backs family law movement
Process that keeps divorcing
spouses out of court gaining ground
08:34 PM CDT on Tuesday, July 13, 2004
Weary of seeing families torn apart in court and hoping to inject some dignity back into divorce proceedings, Collaborative Family Lawyers of Denton County has hitched its wagon to a philosophy in family law that is catching on around the country.
The collaborative law process allows both spouses and their attorneys to discuss the best way to dissolve the marriage. There is no litigation and no need for spouses to attack each other, experts said. It involves a give-and-take approach, they said.
"It is designed to take a lot of the adversarial part out of family law," said Curtis Loveless of Loveless & Loveless LP. "I feel that in a certain number of cases, the system traps people without offering the best alternatives for their situation."
Before beginning, both spouses agree not to go to court and to abide by the terms of divorce agreed upon throughout the process. After a series of meetings, attorneys draft a document that outlines the agreed-upon separation of property and custody of children. A judge makes it official.
Darcy Loveless, also of Loveless & Loveless, said the process prevents much of the animosity that can linger for years after a divorce. It also spares children the pain of a messy court battle, she said.
"In a traditional-style divorce, at some point, you're pretty much forced to pull out everything bad there is to say about the other side and put it on record or in writing," she said. "Once some of those things, especially about kids, are out there, you just can't take them back."
Lawyer S. Camille Milner said one of the biggest advantages is that the process places control over the divorce's outcome back in the couple's hands.
"What we do is facilitate and help the clients settle it themselves – they're totally in control," she said.
The collaborative process is rooted in a style of family law practiced in the 1970s and early '80s.
"But I think the mindset has gotten away from that, and hopefully this will cause people, even if they're not in the formal process, to kind of go back to the kinder, friendlier divorce that we saw back then," Mr. Loveless said.
Bar associations around the country, including Texas', are taking note of the trend. Many offer training programs designed to help traditionally trained lawyers learn the collaborative process.
The Collaborative Family Lawyers of Denton County started in 2001 with 18 family law practitioners. Currently, all of the board-certified family lawyers in Denton County belong to the group and offer the collaborative process in lieu of court proceedings.
According to figures provided by the Denton County district clerk's office, 2,699 divorces were filed in Denton County in 2003.
Vicki Isaacks, presiding judge over the 393rd District Court, is a proponent of the collaborative process.
"Everybody feels like they got a good deal," she said. "The courthouse should be the last resort for any case."
E-mail jgoodman@dentonrc.com
or call 940-566-6880