• You want a civilized, respectful resolution of the issues
• You would like to keep open the possibility of friendship with your partner down the road
• You and your partner will be co-parenting children together and you want the best co-parenting relationship possible
• You want to protect your children from the harm associated with litigated dispute resolution between parents
• You and your partner have a circle of friends or extended family in common that you both want to remain connected to
• You have ethical or spiritual beliefs that place high value on taking personal responsibility and handling conflicts with integrity
• You value privacy in your personal affairs and do not want the details of your divorce and your settlement to be available in the public court record
• You value control and autonomous decision making and do not want to hand over decisions about your future financial and/or child-rearing arrangements to a stranger (i.e. judge)
• You recognize the restricted range of outcomes generally available in the public court system and want a more creative and individualized range of choices available to you and your spouse or partner for resolving issues/conflict
• You place value on the continuing relationships that will exist in your restructured family situation
• You understand that conflict resolution with integrity involves not only achieving your own goals but finding a way to achieve the reasonable goals of the other person
• You and your spouse or partner will commit your intelligence and energy toward creative problem solving rather than toward recrimination or revenge fixing the problem rather than fixing the blame

CLICK HERE FOR A PDF PRINTOUT EXPLAINING HOW COMMUNICATION IN COLLABORATIVE LAW IS DIFFERENT THAN COMMUNICATION IN LITIGATION