American Responsible Divorce

Conventional divorce

The American Bar Association defines the conventional divorce as follows:

Each person hires a lawyer.

The lawyers may be good at settling cases, in which case they work toward that goal at the same time that they prepare the case for the possibility of trial.

If the lawyers are not particularly good at, or interested in, settling the case all lawyer efforts are aimed solely at preparing for trial, though a settlement may still result at or near the time of trial.

Either way, the pacing and objectives of the legal representation tend to be dictated by what happens in court. Cases handled this way generally involve higher legal fees, and take longer to complete, than collaborative law cases or mediated cases.

The risk of a high conflict divorce is higher than with divorce mediation or collaborative law.

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American Responsible Divorce Network is an informal network of people working to
make divorce gentler on children and families.

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