Why Choose the Collaborative Divorce Process

Welcome to Collaborative Divorce in Sonoma County, as practiced by the members of the Collaborative Council of the Redwood Empire, a professional group dedicated to respectfully resolving disputes. As you begin to decide how you wish your divorce process to be, read these points to decide whether the collaborative divorce process is right for you.

• You want a civilized, respectful resolution of the issues.
• You want to keep open the possibility of a respectful relationship (perhaps even the possibility of a friendship) with your partner after the dispute is resolved.
• You and your partner will be co-parenting children together and you want the best co-parenting relationship possible.
• You want to protect your children from the harm associated with conflict in divorce between parents.
• You and your partner have a circle of friends or extended family in common that you both want to remain connected to.
• You have ethical or spiritual beliefs that place high value on taking personal responsibility for handling conflicts with integrity.
• You value your privacy in your personal affairs and you do not want details of your problems to be available in the public Court record.
• You believe that you and your partner will be able to make the best decisions for your family.  You do not want to hand over decision-making about your future financial position and/or your children’s lives to a stranger, such as a Judge.
• You want to find a creative and individual solution to your problem.
• You understand that resolving your dispute with integrity involves not only achieving your own goals but finding a way to respect the reasonable goals of the other person.
• You wish to fix a problem rather than apportion blame, and you want to work creatively toward solving the problem rather than exacting revenge.
• You and your partner are a same-sex couple looking for a process that is sensitive to your unique needs and the challenges facing LGBT families.

We are glad you are here, and hope that you will find our website useful and informative.