Los Angeles and Orange County Collaborative Law Attorneys keep you in control.
We understand the stress and anxiety you’re feeling. Solving family law problems is stressful. You and /or your spouse may be angry. Every meeting or conversation may break down and become unproductive. Your spouse’s reactions to your efforts to deal with matters can feel like you are being attacked when you’re just trying to get things resolved. Your spouse may feel like you are attacking them. Every conversation dissolves into blame and hurt. Under these circumstances, it can take weeks or months to resolve a single issue. Breaking out of this negative cycle can be very difficult, and the emotional and financial costs of trying to divorce through the traditional “lawyers going to court” model may be significant.
There is a better way – Collaborative Divorce
At Hammers & Baltazar Family Law we understand that divorce is difficult enough without the stress of adversarial court proceedings. For many couples, there is a better way. The Collaborative Divorce approach to resolving family issues can be faster, and is more likely to produce a result that both sides can accept, than litigation. Our attorneys are experts in the Collaborative Divorce process.
"We help you get through tough family problems while giving you more control, reducing pain and expense, and affording you the privacy your family deserves."
-Armine Baltazar
How the Collaborative Divorce process works
Collaborative Divorce addresses the emotional, financial and legal challenges of divorce with a specialized team approach. In Collaborative Divorce, each party is represented by a Collaborative Divorce Attorney trained in the Collaborative Divorce process. Parties agree from the very beginning to stay out of court. A formal agreement is signed stating that each attorney is barred from representing their client in litigation if the clients can’t reach an agreement outside of court. This motivates both the clients and the attorneys to stay with the process until a fair resolution can be reached. Collaborative Divorce Coaches are trained mental health practitioners who manage the clients’ emotional aspects of divorce and assist in promoting productive communication and getting passed impasse. A neutral Financial Specialist is a CPA, Certified Divorce Financial Planner or other qualified financial expert who addresses financial issues and information gathering. Each professional works to their strength as resolution is reached through a series of constructive meetings driven by the needs of the clients.
Some of the advantages of Collaborative Divorce include:
- Peaceful and productive interaction between you and your spouse— Collaborative Divorce can shield your children from the trauma of divorce. Your children will carry the story of their parent’s divorce for the rest of their lives. It is imperative that you write that story well.
- Sharing expenses — You and your spouse can share the cost of neutral experts to determine financial and valuation issues, cutting the expense for these services in half.
- Divorce coaching — Divorce coaches help you address the underlying and unacknowledged issues that can hinder settlement, and they assist in facilitating productive communication between divorcing spouses. Let’s not kid ourselves – most settlements are hijacked by unaddressed issues and triggers that have nothing to do with the law. It’s normal, and Collaborative Divorce addresses it head on. Divorce coaches can also help you come up with parenting plans that will work best for you and your children.
- Staying in control — The process puts full control in the hands of you and your spouse, not in the hands of overworked court officials.
- Privacy — Collaborative Divorce protects your privacy. In the traditional litigated divorce, your information is open to the public. But with Collaborative Divorce, most documents and information do not become part of the public record.
- Pacing – You control the pace of the process. You’re not subject to the delays and schedules of our over-loaded court system.
- Child Specialist – In some cases, it’s important to hear from children. Collaborative Divorce allows this option with a neutral Child Specialist who brings the child’s voice to the Collaborative team without the need for an expensive custody evaluation or for a child to be interviewed by a judge.
What you can expect
When you work with Hammers & Baltazar, LLP in your Collaborative Divorce, you can expect to transition your family with dignity and self-respect, knowing that you handled your separation from your spouse with integrity and with minimum impact on your family's financial and emotional well-being.
Mediation is another type of consensual dispute resolution (CDR). In mediation, a neutral mediator guides the process, and parties may (but don’t have to be) represented by an attorney. Find out more about divorce mediation.
Contact us
The Los Angeles and Orange County Collaborative Law Attorneys of Hammers & Baltazar are committed to using the Collaborative Divorce process to help clients resolve difficult problems. We belong to several Collaborate Divorce organizations, including the Los Angeles Collaborative Family Law Association, the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and the Los Angeles Westside Collaborative Divorce Professionals.
Our Collaborative services include child custody, spousal and child support, post-judgment modifications, complex asset division and paternity services.
If you have questions regarding Collaborative Divorce, we have the knowledge and experience to answer them.
- Call our West Los Angeles/Santa Monica office at (310) 458-0796. Located at Wilshire and Bundy.
- Call our Costa Mesa/Newport office at (949) 631-2805. Located on Victoria near the 55.