Collaborative Divorce

In a collaborative divorce, the parties each have their own lawyer. The rules of the game are the same as in mediation: the process is confidential and the parties must be completely open with each other. They treat each other with respect and the interests of the children are paramount. A collaborative divorce differs from mediation in that a coach is appointed who is present at all discussions. The coach's task is mainly to support and coach the (emotions of the) people and he/she talks to the children.

Good alternative to mediation

A collaborative divorce is a good alternative to mediation if there is a major imbalance between the partners involved in terms of knowledge, emotions or power. It often happens that one partner managed the entire family finances and the other partner did not interfere. In mediation, this can lead to the underlying party not feeling sufficiently protected by the mediator due to this lack of knowledge. Mediation also often works less well if one party does not feel up to the other due to dominant behaviour or because one party is simply verbally stronger than the other. For cases in which parties value absolute privacy and confidentiality, such as very wealthy clients or well-known Dutch people, a collaborative divorce is a solution.

Introduced by Marjoleine de Boorder

Marjoleine de Boorder introduced this new way of divorce in the Netherlands and has been chairman of the VvCP (Association of Collaborative Professionals) for a long time. A number of lawyers from our office are collaborative divorce lawyers and affiliated with this association. Priska Voskuil is (currently) a board member of this association.