What Are The Benefits of Collaborative Divorce?

Texas Divorce Lawyer Explains the Process

Video Transcript:

Duana Boswell-Loechel: 

It removes all the fight from a divorce so that you can reach agreements that work with the parties a lot easier.

Tom Mustin: 

Can a collaborative divorce make a difficult situation less painful? We're going to talk to attorney Duana Boswell-Loechel about that on today's AskTheLawyer. Duana, thanks for joining us.

Duana Boswell-Loechel: 

Thanks for having me.

Tom Mustin: 

Great to have you. So what is collaborative divorce in Texas?

Duana Boswell-Loechel: 

Collaborative divorce is actually a process that you request permission from the court that you file your divorce in to basically take it outside of the court. And you basically just kind of open up the whole process and share information freely between the parties. So it's just... It removes all the fight from a divorce so that you can reach agreements that work with the parties a lot easier.

Tom Mustin: 

So walk us through the collaborative divorce process. And do you need any special training as an attorney for this?

Duana Boswell-Loechel: 

So it's not required that you have special training to be a collaborative divorce attorney. But it is a good idea that your attorney has had some training and experience in collaborative divorces just because the process is a little different than litigation through the court for a divorce, as you have to follow a slightly different procedure and requesting permission from the court and going through the process. The discovery process of sharing information regarding assets and liabilities is a little different. So that training really helps.

Tom Mustin: 

So is collaborative divorce actually less expensive than a regular divorce for spouses?

Duana Boswell-Loechel: 

Yes, it's going to be a lot less expensive for any divorce that can avoid going into a court for a trial. Usually the trial and that preparation process for a trial is one of the most expensive parts of a divorce. So being able to just freely share the information, you don't have to ask the court to force them to provide information to you because you're going to have everything that you need in order to get a settlement and agreement.

Tom Mustin: 

Okay, and we all have heard of mediation. What's the difference between mediation and a collaborative divorce?

Duana Boswell-Loechel: 

Collaborative divorce is a process that goes throughout the whole divorce and it applies to sharing your bank statements and all your asset statements and anything that's regarding the property, liabilities, debts, and anything in the divorce. Mediation is just focused on finding a settlement. And so you would have already gone through maybe hearings in court or having to fight over discovery and to get the information that you need in a mediation and you may not have it. So mediation is very similar to the very ending of a collaborative divorce process and just coming to that settlement.

Tom Mustin: 

So Duana, tell us about the benefits of collaborative divorce, and is there ever a situation where you would recommend against this?

Duana Boswell-Loechel: 

So there are a lot of benefits to collaborative divorce. One of them is it maintains your privacy. So when you go into court for a trial, it's a public record and it's a public forum. So all of your secrets that you may not want people to know is going to come out when you're on the stand, and you avoid that. You can also come up with very creative solutions for your property division or what happens with your children. And you can also maintain your relationship because you're not in a fighting stance and you're actually working together to try to come up with a creative solution to separate and live your separate lives while still raising children or having to come together and figure out what's going to happen with your property, then your relationships are maintained as well. And you get that ability to keep or save face so that you don't have to air all your dirty laundry in the public forum.

Tom Mustin: 

Right. So the second part of my question was, is there ever a situation where you would recommend against this collaborative divorce?

Duana Boswell-Loechel: 

Against collaborative divorce would be if we have a domestic violence situation. So if we have one party that's being abused, that process just isn't going to work since they really have to be able to communicate with each other for it to work.

Tom Mustin: 

Okay, good answer there. So what happens if the collaborative divorce doesn't work out? Can the parties agree to go through a standard divorce and also keep the same attorneys?

Duana Boswell-Loechel: 

Typically part of the agreement, because you have to sign a participation agreement for a collaborative divorce, and part of that agreement is if it comes to a point where you're going to take it to the litigation in court, then you would each have to find a new attorney.

Tom Mustin: 

Okay. Well, always great to see you, Duana. Great answers, as always, and look forward to seeing you again very soon.

Duana Boswell-Loechel: 

Thank you.

Tom Mustin: 

So that's going to do it for this episode of Ask the Lawyer. My guest has been Duana Boswell-Loechel. If you want to ask Duana about your situation, call the number you see on your screen. Thanks for watching. I'm Tom Mustin for AskTheLawyers.

Disclaimer: This video is for informational purposes only. In some states, this video may be deemed Attorney Advertising. The choice of lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.