To get divorced in Illinois, spouses must address multiple financial, legal, and logistical issues. If the spouses can agree on how to handle these issues, they can avoid the timely, costly, and stressful divorce litigation process. However, reaching an informed decision about property division, child custody, and other divorce issues is very difficult to do without help. Fortunately, Illinois spouses have the option of ending their marriage through collaborative law. Collaborative divorce is an alternative resolution method that offers numerous benefits for divorcing spouses and their children. One of the key elements in a collaborative divorce is the “participation agreement” or “collaborative agreement.”
Understanding Participation Agreements in a Collaborative Divorce
As the name implies, collaborative divorce is a collaborative process. The spouses and their lawyers seek to resolve divorce issues cooperatively, without the hostility that exists in many litigated divorce cases. To ensure that everyone in the collaborative divorce process understands and agrees to the terms of the resolution process, each participant is asked to sign a participation agreement. The spouses, their attorneys, accountants, appraisers, child specialists, and others involved in the collaborative process agree to these terms.
Each collaborative divorce is different, but many participation agreements include promises to:
...