Westchester Divorce Lawyer – Arnold D. Cribari

Collaborative Divorce: Avoid Nuclear Option

T. Boone Pickens knows a thing or two about preserving financial assets. He is one of many financially savvy individuals who have decided on Collaborative Divorce, rather than the “nuclear option” of a court-based divorce. An article on CNBC.com cites Pickens as having saved millions of dollars by choosing the Collaborative Divorce Process. The CNBC article is actually an excellent, comprehensive introduction to collaborative divorce. Having been a practicing collaborative attorney for a dozen years, I take issue with just one point in the article that says collaborative divorce is not good for couples with power imbalances. The collaborative process – in the hands of skilled collaborative attorneys –– mitigates power imbalances. It is the goal of each attorney in the collaborative process to empower his or her client to assert their needs and concerns to the maximum extent in a respectful way. Collaborative can be a fluid process: if … Read More...

Collaborative Divorce and a Special Needs Child

With March being Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, I am reminded that – for a divorcing couple who has a child with special needs – a collaborative divorce offers the best way for the parents to come to an agreement on addressing the needs of the child. About ten years ago, I worked on a collaborative divorce in which the couple had two children, one of whom had been diagnosed on the autism spectrum. I represented the husband, and another collaborative lawyer, “Michelle,” represented the wife. The parties were having some very heated arguments about parental decision-making and access to the children. The defining moment in the case occurred at a four-way settlement conference when, after a few niceties were exchanged, the wife suddenly lashed out at the husband, exclaiming how upset she was at his criticism of her decision-making with respect to their disabled child, and the various therapies she … Read More...

An Affordable Divorce

As a divorce lawyer with a solo practice, I offer clients personalized service and reasonable fees. Maintaining an office with low overhead expenses translates into a lower hourly rate for my services. I particularly enjoy doing collaborative divorce and mediation. In those cases, I work in partnership with my clients to achieve a settlement that works for both divorcing spouses and their children. I like collaborative and mediation because those processes empower the client and enable us to work together to find creative, “outside the box” solutions. Collaborative and mediation are also much more economical for the client, since those processes eliminate the need for writing voluminous legal papers and spending monumental hours in court. When collaborative or mediation is not possible, and clients are doing a litigated (court-based) divorce, I sometimes team up with an attorney colleague, particularly if my client’s spouse has hired a large law firm. This … Read More...

Beat the System in a Divorce

© Arnold D. Cribari, 2015 If you want to beat the system in a divorce and save a lot of money, a collaborative divorce or mediation is the way to go. You can “cut to the chase;” skip going to court and avoid paying for monumental hours of your lawyer’s time in preparation for court. Get to the heart of a settlement discussion early in the process. Here’s how it works. You and your spouse meet together with both of your attorneys, arrange for necessary financial disclosure and start a four-way conversation about settlement. This obviates the need for unnecessary financial disclosure, legal motions, court appearances – and the thousands of dollars in lawyers’ fees generated by all of that paperwork and courtroom presentations. In the collaborative process, both you and your spouse have your own attorneys. Your collaborative attorney is your ally and will make sure that you are … Read More...

Collaborative Divorce vs Aggressive Divorce

As a divorce attorney – in social situations I am often asked – if I were in need of my own divorce, would I want a collaborative divorce or would I pursue an aggressive divorce? When I probe the questioner I usually find that the question is based on a mistaken assumption. The assumption is that an aggressive approach will enable you to get and keep “more” of what you want out of the divorce. The truth is – unless your goal is to make your lawyer rich – the aggressive approach is probably not in your best interest. An aggressive approach in divorce means “litigation.” Litigation necessitates mountains of paperwork requiring hours and hours of “billable hours” of your attorney’s time. Moreover, in litigation, our adversarial legal system tends to aggravate the situation, increasing the amount of time demanded of your lawyer. The court system looks for the “truth” … Read More...

Choosing a Divorce Lawyer: Why Hire a Settlement Professional?

You probably have more experience dealing with doctors than with divorce lawyers. You may find this analogy helpful. If you had a heart problem, you wouldn’t go to an orthopedist. If your goal is a good divorce settlement, then, why would you go to a trial lawyer? It makes more sense to choose an attorney with skills, training and experience in getting good settlements. In our medical analogy, a divorce trial is comparable to surgery. Surgery is risky, stressful and expensive. You don’t undergo surgery unless it’s absolutely necessary. A collaborative divorce is comparable to the medical approach to a problem. When dealing with an illness, usually the least risky treatment is recommended. Going to court is risky. Over my 30-plus-year care as a divorce lawyer, I have told countless clients, “Get your needs met in a settlement. At trial you roll the dice.” When confronted with a divorce, think … Read More...

Why choose a collaborative divorce?

As a divorce attorney, I have been part of the collaborative divorce movement for 12 years. Before that, I spent 25 years in the adversarial divorce system. Over the past 14 years – since collaborative began in New York State – collaborative has been gaining a reputation as the less stressful, less costly, way to divorce. Yet it astonishes me that many people still choose to go the adversarial route; many of those divorces escalate into monumental messes. I wish there were a way to persuade people that – even in high conflict divorces – revenge on your spouse is not in your best interest. In New York State, there are legal guidelines for distribution of assets, maintenance, child support, etc. Fighting for demands beyond those legal guidelines can be a great adrenaline rush. Your attorney may even succeed in getting your spouse to cave on some of those issues. … Read More...

How to find a good collaborative divorce attorney

Collaborative divorce has achieved a reputation as a less stressful and less expensive divorce process. Consequently, more and more divorce lawyers are calling themselves collaborative attorneys. Unfortunately, just because an attorney labels him or herself as “collaborative” doesn’t necessarily mean that they have the training and skills to conduct a collaborative divorce. Your best bet is to select a collaborative divorce attorney who is an active member in good standing of the New York Association of Collaborative Professionals (NYACP). The NYACP has the most rigorous training requirement of any collaborative professionals’ group in the New York metropolitan area.

Choosing a Divorce Lawyer

So you and your spouse have decided that your marriage isn’t salvageable. You both are emotionally bruised and angry. Nevertheless, you would like to dissolve the marriage with as little stress as possible, both for yourselves and for your children. Here are some things to watch out for when choosing a divorce lawyer. In your first consultation, if the attorney says, “We need to file a summons,” ask why. If the answer is “because this is the way we start a divorce,” stop right there. Are you in a true emergency situation? Very few circumstances in a divorce are true emergencies. A true emergency includes physical abuse of any kind, psychological abuse of the children (i.e. a parent being cut off from their children); incessant psychological abuse of you (i.e. constant belittling), or financial abuse (i.e. withholding of money for rent, mortgage, food and/or other necessities). If you find yourself … Read More...

Saving on the Cost of Divorce

Almost all litigated divorces in Westchester and New York State (i.e. contested divorces through the court system) ultimately get settled, oftentimes “on the courthouse steps.” Unfortunately, in order to get a divorce to the courthouse steps, it takes an enormous amount of time for both lawyers to provide all of the necessary professional services. This results in high legal fees. Since litigated divorces almost always get settled, doesn’t it make sense to focus on settlement at every step in the divorce process to reduce divorce costs? That is exactly what happens in the collaborative divorce process in Westchester and NY. There is only one agenda in a collaborative case: to gather the necessary information and negotiate a settlement that is tailored to the reasonable needs of both spouses and their children. Collaborative is more streamlined, takes substantially less time for the attorneys, and, therefore, is a relatively inexpensive divorce process … Read More...