Posted on April 4, 2008 by Peggy Roston

Alternatives To The Traditional Divorce Case

A divorce is processed through the court system like any other civil case. Both spouses retain attorneys to represent them. One spouse, the “plaintiff,” files a complaint for divorce against the other spouse, the “defendant” who then files an answer to the complaint. The case is assigned to a superior court judge on a random basis. Judges certainly encourage attorneys and their clients to work cooperatively. But the court process is based upon an adversarial system, which pits the parties against each other as each attorney argues in favor of the client’s position. Consequently, divorce litigation is financially draining because of the amount of time and legal fees involved. It is emotionally draining, particularly since it is almost impossible for an attorney to give a client the peace of mind of knowing how the judge is going to rule on the points of contention between the parties.

Fortunately, there are alternatives to the adversarial court case. These alternatives seek to build a consensus between the parties on issues related to property, custody, and support. The first alternative is mediation. In divorce mediation, a neutral third party works with you and your spouse to identify issues on which you do not agree and to assist you and your spouse in coming to an agreement on all financial and child-related divorce issues. The neutral third party cannot give advice to either of you so it is quite common for each spouse to have an attorney present at mediation sessions. 

The second alternative is the collaborative law process. Unlike mediation, the collaborative law process does not involve a neutral third party. Instead, you and your spouse each hire an attorney whose role is to assist you in going through each step of the collaborative process to come to an agreement on all divorce issues without going to court. The attorneys may bring other collaborative professionals including coaches, child specialists, and financial planners into the process for guidance and information. 

You can learn more about the differences between the traditional court case, mediation, and the collaborative practice from the Comparison Of Divorce Options chart, created by Conneticut attorney Harold Brienes.

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Posted on March 28, 2008 by Peggy Roston

Alaska Divorce Law: The Basics

        


 During a marriage, spouses manage their finances and raise their children according to their personal values and family traditions. Unless one or both of them decide to end the marriage, it is unlikely that they will become familiar with Alaska divorce law. But if you are reading this post, you are probably interesting in learning about the legal framework, which guides a family lawyer in representing divorce clients. 

A divorce case can be divided into property, custody and support issues.  This post offers some general information about the division of property in a divorce case.  The process of dividing property in a divorce case is referred to as "equitable distribution."  Under Alaska law all property and debts spouses acquired during marriage are subject to being divided between them when they divorce. In the case of property, it does not matter how it is titled or whether only one spouse’s earnings were used to purchase the property. If the property was acquired while the spouses were married and before they permanently separated, it is subject to being divided when they divorce. Similarly, if a debt was acquired while the spouses were married, the balance of the debt at the time the spouses permanently separate will be included in the list of property and liabilities, which have to be allocated between the spouses.  There are a couple of exceptions to this general rule including property acquired by gift or inheritance. But depending on how the spouses handled this property during the marriage, the “immunity” generally afforded property acquired by gift or inheritance may be lost. If you have gifted or inherited property, you should be sure to discuss this property with your divorce attorney. 

If you are interested in paths to divorce other than the traditional civil divorce lawsuit, you may want to visit the South Carolina Family Law Blog's post about on-line videos, which have short presentations about the changing landscape of divorce.

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