Law Professors should know better.  In what has to be one of the longest-running open cases in U.S. history, the divorce proceedings between two law professors continues to rage in Hamilton County, Ohio.

The two now-adult children produced from this ill-fated union have never known anything other than their parents locked in an epic divorce battle during which each parent has alternately won, then lost custody.  How utterly embarrassing.

The judge currently presiding over the matter recently chastised both parties for their non-exemplary behavior in the latest hearing conducted in the matter last month.  Over the years, several of the family court judge's rulings have been appealed by both parties; this, no doubt, has gobbled-up some of the years this matter has been pending and active in the courts.

Michigan Connection:  Law Professor Sharlene Boltz, one-half of this divorce disaster, is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School.  We here at the Law Blogger wonder whether she ever took a family law course.

Here in Michigan, county family court judges are under a directive of the Michigan Supreme Court to complete all divorce proceeding within one year.  While this is a good rule-of-thumb, it is difficult to accomplish in some cases.

One of the ways we attempt to reduce protracted delays in the divorce matters we handle at our law firm is utilization of the collaborative divorce approach.  In a collaborative divorce, the spouses communicate directly about the ultimate settlement in the case prior to actually filing the initial pleadings.

Once a divorce is filed, the spouses and their minor children are subjected to the public jurisdiction and the timetable of the local family court.

The negotiations in a collaborative divorce proceeding, on the other hand, are conducted privately, often with the assistance of at least one lawyer and, if necessary, a counselor or therapist.  A team approach is used with an emphasis on cooperation and without concern for court-imposed deadlines.

Unfortunately, this divorce model does not suit every family.  For the collaborative divorce model to work, both spouses must commit to on-going communication and mutually reasonable objectives; if one of the spouses insists on the adversarial process, the collaborative model will not be possible.

If you are contemplating divorce and believe you have a rational cooperative spouse, perhaps you should give the collaborative divorce model a try.  To learn more, contact our law firm for a free consultation.

www.clarkstonlegal.com
info@clarkstonlegal.com