Collaborative Divorce: A New Approach to Dissolving Marriages in Florida

Collaborative divorce is a relatively new approach and process to ending a marriage in Florida.  It is a voluntary, non-adversarial alternative that involves a team approach, consisting of two collaborative attorneys, and, if desired, a neutral financial expert and a neutral mental health expert.  The parties and the team sign a participation agreement, stipulating that they intend, through the collaborative process, to resolve all issues cooperatively and forego litigation.  Discovery is exchanged in the protected team setting, with the goal of keeping the parties’ financial and personal information as private as possible.  If a party does proceed with litigation, the collaborative process terminates, and the team of professionals withdraw from the case.

The collaborative divorce is especially beneficial to high net worth individuals and those with extensive business holdings, as it provides greater privacy than a traditionally litigated divorce.   It is also beneficial to parents with a focus on being able to effectively co-parent after a divorce, as the neutral mental health expert can help the parties work through any and all parenting issues and ultimately devise a timesharing schedule and parenting plan that will best suit the parties.

Because of the increased privacy in a collaborative divorce and the greater control the individual parties have over the outcome of their divorce, it is not surprising that it is growing in popularity throughout the country and that many celebrities are increasingly using this process to dissolve their marriages.  The collaborative process has been used by Madonna and Guy Ritchie, Cameron Crowe, and Robin Williams, to name a few.

Though the framework of the collaborative divorce process was introduced decades ago, and is currently used worldwide, the concept has only recently started to gain traction in Florida.  Part III of Chapter 61 of the Florida Statutes is now the Collaborative Law Process Act, which sets out the process to be used.  The Florida Supreme Court has also adopted rules of procedure and professional conduct with respect to the collaborative process to accompany the Florida Collaborative Law Process Act.  With the passage of the Act and the corresponding rules of procedure and professional conduct, more people in Florida have become aware of, and are choosing to benefit from, this more cooperative and private approach to divorce.