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Where litigation often focuses
on whether and how to limit the
children’s exposure to the suffering
parent, a collaborative divorce
can result in a nuanced plan that
addresses the mental illness directly
and maximizes both parents’
involvement in their children’s
lives while protecting the children.
Instead of hiring a mental
health expert to “attack” the
suffering party’s parenting, the
team can, for example:
• Retain substance abuse
experts to provide treatment
recommendations;
• Use parenting coaches to
assist both parents with
conflict resolution; and/or,
• Involve treatment providers
who obtain information
from the team and suggest
approaches to resolution
that will support, rather than
erode, treatment progress.
Most importantly, at the end
of the collaborative process, the
parents will not have spent months
or years attacking and blaming
each other in a public forum.
Instead, they will have worked
together to address the mental
illness that likely contributed to
their divorce in the first place.
And, in doing so, they will
hopefully find a way to move
beyond their past problems and
to create an environment where
they can co-parent their children
as a family. n
Collaborative
Section
Luncheon
on september 25, the collaborative
section held its first luncheon of the
year on the topic of subjective issues
in collaborative divorce. the speakers
Michael lundy with older lundy &
alvarez and anthony phillips, cpa with
cBiz covered several topics, including
when to discuss subjective issues and
examples of subjective issues; the role of
the law and case law; advising the client;
discussing past (litigation) experiences;
and their personal perspective.
Breslau J, Miller E, Jin R, et al.,
A multinational study of mental
disorders, marriage, and divorce. 124
Acta Psychiatr Scand 474-486 (2011).
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Author: Jessica Felix - Felix, Felix
& Baseman
NOV - DEC 2019
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HCBA LAWYER
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