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Angie Bain: Gay Divorce: How the Collaborative Family Law Model Can Help Parting LGBT Couples

 

One of the many unjust results of a state legal system that refuses to recognize and validate a same-sex marriage or civil union is the absence of a binding structure and system for dissolving a fractured same-sex couple. LGBT couples typically have many, if not all, of the same legal issues to confront. How is custody of their children shared? How is their shared property divided? Who must help to support whom when the union ends? ...Those of us active in the legal world of family law are constantly reminded that "the law" significantly lags behind the realities of modern human society. 

The emergence worldwide of the concept of collaborative family law offers an effective, if not ideal, process to both legally and contractually codify an intact family, thereby lessening the uncertainty of a possible split and creating legal equality in the relationship. And if the couple separates, particularly in a state that refuses to recognize same-sex marriage or civil unions, the collaborative law model is invaluable in offering structure and guidance to divorcing couples.

The collaborative law model emerged in the early '90s as an alternative to the litigation court process of divorce. Since that time, the movement has gone viral around the globe. At the core of the process is the contractual agreement, signed at the start of the dissolution, that the couple will not appear in court to seek court intervention. And, if one or the other wishes to do so, both parties must hire new lawyers, from different law firms, before taking their case to court. The beauty of this tenet is that all participants, legal counsel included, have financial incentive to collaborate and reach acceptable resolutions!

As a family law attorney and mother to a gay man, Angie Bain provides an interesting view on gay divorce and collaboritve law. Read the whole huffpost blog.