Resolving Visitation And Timesharing Matters In A Collaborative Environment

Often, people assume that all visitation and timesharing cases go to trial. This is far from the truth. Many parental responsibility cases in Florida are handled outside court through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods. If you are looking to resolve visitation and timesharing matters through an ADR method, one popular and recommendable method you should consider is collaborative law. In the context of parental responsibility matters, collaborative law is a process focused on resolving visitation and timesharing matters with the help of qualified attorneys, a neutral facilitator, a parenting coordinator, a mental health professional (if applicable), and a child development specialist (if applicable), among other experts.

Collaborative Law and Parental Responsibility Matters

Discussing issues and making decisions about visitation and timesharing can be difficult. However, when you choose to resolve such matters in a collaborative environment, you get to work with professionals who usually make such things a little more manageable. Generally, collaborative law can make challenging times more manageable. Additionally, when you and your child’s other parent work together with a team of professionals, you are able to make decisions that are in the best interests of your child or children. However, for collaborative law to work, both parents must be willing to make it work.

Collaborative law is one of the best ADR methods to use when faced with visitation and timesharing matters because it is about long-term thinking. Collaborative law requires parents to think about more than just their interests. This ADR method requires parents to think about their children’s future. Collaborative law is also one of the best ADR methods because the professionals you get to work with strive to ensure you think about the crucial things you need to consider when making visitation and timesharing decisions. For example, a child specialist can help you consider, among many other things;

• Your child’s or children’s education
• Which religious faith your child or children should be brought up in
• Your child’s or children’s healthcare needs and which parent should provide for those needs
• Whether shared or sole parental responsibility is what is best for your child or children

When it comes to parental responsibility matters, you want to ensure you do everything you can to make the best parenting decisions. Sometimes, court trials lead to parents acting selfishly at the expense of what is best for their children. Sometimes during trials, parents focus too much on painting each other in a bad light that they forget about what is best for their children. Collaborative law can help create ways for you and the other parent to cooperate. Usually, parents who choose collaborative law as a method of resolving visitation and timesharing matters are required to sign an agreement stating that they commit to non-adversarial cooperation, integrity, and honesty.

Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about going to court in the future when you need to change visitation and timesharing decisions made in a collaborative environment. Suppose your initial visitation and timesharing decisions were obtained through collaborative law instead of litigation. In that case, you can use the same method to make changes as long as you and the other parent agree on the modifications.

If you need more information on collaborative law or help with determining whether it would be a suitable option for resolving your visitation and timesharing matters or any other family law matter, do not hesitate to contact the Orlando family lawyers at the Arwani Law Firm. We can assess your case and advise you on the best way to proceed.