Collaborative Divorce in Ohio

John L. Heilbrun has over 30 years of experience helping clients with family and marital law problems including divorce, dissolution, Collaborative Divorce (Collaborative Law), Child Custody, Shared Parenting, Spousal Support/Alimony, Property and Debt Division, Paternity cases and Post Decree problems.

With conveniently located offices in both the Hyde Park and Blue Ash areas of Cincinnati, John Heilbrun offers representation to people experiencing such problems in Hamilton, Butler, Clermont and Warren Counties.

Collaborative Divorce (also known as Collaborative Law) is a process by which spouses who agree that they are going to end their marriage also agree that they are going to work together with their respective attorneys to resolve, by agreement, all issues which are incident to the contemplated termination of their marriage. Collaborative Divorce is an alternative to costly and emotionally stressful adversarial Courtroom proceedings. It requires a commitment by both spouses to resolve all issues by agreement. It allows the parties to maintain control of the process and to resolve the issues themselves rather than turning over the responsibility for the resolution of these most important issues to the Court.

Collaborative Divorce focuses on the client rather than the lawyers and the traditional adversarial legal model. The interests and goals of both spouses and their children are discussed and identified, and the issues incident to the termination of the marriage are agreed upon during a series of four-way meetings involving both spouses and their respective attorneys.

To proceed with a Collaborative Divorce, both spouses must retain attorneys who have been specially trained to practice Collaborative Law. John Heilbrun is a member of a select group of family and marital law attorneys in southwest Ohio who have obtained this special training and have significant experience representing clients in the Collaborative process. A joint written agreement is signed by both parties and their attorneys. Everyone agrees to work together to resolve all of these issues in a way that will work best for the parties and their children.

The benefits of proceeding with the Collaborative Divorce process include that the spouses work together to resolve all issues thereby diminishing the possibility of ongoing conflict between them. This is of critical importance in cases where the parties have children, as the significant stress that results from adversarial Court proceedings often causes increased and long lasting conflict between the parties, which ultimately adversely affects their children.

The Collaborative Divorce process is also often less expensive and takes less time than adversarial Court proceedings.