No one says that divorce is easy, but lawyers and courts can make it a lot more stressful and expensive than it has to be. If you want to separate all of your marital assets and settle your custody and support issues in a way that is a fraction of the cost and the time, consider collaborative law.

Divorce doesn’t have to be a trial. I’ve slugged it out in divorce court for over 31 years with some of the most aggressive attorneys in Wake County. I can direct and cross examine with the best of them and rattle and manipulate witnesses like nobody’s tomorrow.

But divorce court is not the best and least expensive way to end a marriage. In collaborative law each party – husband and wife – has his/her own attorney and you sit around a table and have a series of meetings. You sign a pledge not to file a law suit and you each produce voluntarily any documents that are needed and they are put in a notebook.

I recently settled a collaborative law case in a 24-year marriage. In three months we had a series of four meetings and signed an agreement. We settled property, spousal support and even though the children are all “of age” we included provisions related to their education and care.

Here is what my client has to say about the process, which cost her $5,000 and her husband $5,000. If we had litigated this cost it would have taken one to one and a half years and would have been at least $25,000 in legal fees EACH.

“I would recommend collaborative law with Parker Herring to any of my friends who are going through a divorce. I didn’t want the divorce ending my 24-year marriage and still don’t, but the way that we settled all of our issues in a collaborative setting over the course of three months was civil and respectful. My husband and I have three wonderful boys together, and we can still talk about anything that needs to be talked about.”

-Michelle C.

Don’t litigate; collaborate! To learn more about collaborative law with Parker Herring Law Group, click here.