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Collaborative Divorce · Florida

A divorce built at a table, not fought in a courtroom.

Florida collaborative divorce under the Collaborative Law Process Act, Fla. Stat. ch. 61.55 to 61.58. I serve as participating collaborative counsel for one spouse. Florida statewide, English and Spanish.

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Last updated Dec 31, 1969, 7:00 PM EST

What collaborative divorce is

Collaborative divorce is a statutory out-of-court process. Florida adopted the Collaborative Law Process Act in 2016, codified at Fla. Stat. ch. 61.55 to 61.58, and the Florida Supreme Court adopted the accompanying procedural and ethics rules. Both spouses retain their own collaborative attorney, everyone signs a participation agreement, and the case is resolved through a series of structured meetings.

The defining feature is the disqualification rule. If the process breaks down, both collaborative attorneys withdraw and neither can litigate the contested case. Nobody at the table has a professional interest in escalation. That single structural fact changes how the room behaves.

Statutory text: Fla. Stat. ch. 61, Part III, Collaborative Law Process Act.

My role in the process

I serve as participating collaborative counsel for one spouse. I sign the participation agreement, prepare you between meetings, and advocate for your interests at the four-way table. I am bound by the same disqualification rule as everyone else, which is the point.

I am not a Florida Supreme Court certified family mediator and I do not serve as the neutral in a collaborative team. Where your matter needs a neutral, I will refer you to professionals I trust.

How a Florida collaborative divorce runs

  1. 01 · The phone call

    We talk through the marriage, the estate, the children, and the temperature between you and your spouse. Collaborative practice only works when both sides genuinely want it, so the first question is whether this model actually fits.

  2. 02 · Participation agreement

    Both spouses and both collaborative attorneys sign the participation agreement required by the Act. That document commits everyone to voluntary disclosure, to good-faith negotiation, and to the disqualification rule.

  3. 03 · Team formation

    Where the case calls for it, the parties jointly retain a neutral financial professional, a facilitator, or both. Neutrals are shared, which is one reason the total cost tends to run below a two-expert litigation posture.

  4. 04 · Voluntary disclosure

    Financial information is exchanged openly rather than through formal discovery. No interrogatories, no motions to compel, no deposition calendar.

  5. 05 · The four-way meetings

    A series of structured joint meetings works through interests, options, and terms. Preparation happens between meetings so the table time is spent deciding rather than reacting.

  6. 06 · Settlement and filing

    The agreed marital settlement agreement and parenting plan are drafted, signed, and submitted to the court for entry of the final judgment. The courtroom appearance is administrative rather than adversarial.

Collaborative, mediation, or litigation

CollaborativeMediationContested litigation
StructureSeries of four-way meetings under a signed participation agreement.One or more sessions with a single neutral.Motions, discovery, hearings, and trial on the court's calendar.
DisclosureVoluntary and open, by agreement.Whatever the parties bring to the session.Formal discovery, enforced by motion practice.
Who decidesThe spouses.The spouses.The judge, if the case does not settle first.
If it failsBoth attorneys withdraw and new counsel is retained.The case continues with the same lawyers.Trial.
PrivacyNegotiations stay out of the public record.Session content is confidential.Filings and testimony are largely public.

When it fits

  • Both spouses want an out-of-court resolution and will disclose voluntarily.
  • Children are involved and the co-parenting relationship has to survive the divorce.
  • A business, professional practice, or valuation question calls for a shared financial neutral.
  • Privacy matters, professionally or personally.
  • The parties want to control the outcome rather than hand it to a judge.

When it does not

  • Domestic violence, coercive control, or a power imbalance the process cannot correct.
  • Concealment of assets or a spouse who will not disclose without compulsion.
  • Emergency relief is needed. The collaborative process has no courtroom in it.
  • One spouse is using the process to delay rather than to resolve.

Where this sits among the other engagements

Collaborative divorce is the full out-of-court representation model. If you want a shorter runway, Presuit Resolution handles negotiation or a neutral online mediation before anything is filed. If you already have counsel and want an independent read before signing, the Second Opinion is the right door. If you want strategy behind the scenes while your own lawyer stays of record, that is Private Counsel.

Every one of them begins the same way, at the consultation call.

Common questions

Collaborative divorce is an out-of-court dissolution process governed by Florida's Collaborative Law Process Act, Fla. Stat. ch. 61.55 to 61.58. Both spouses retain their own collaborative attorney, everyone signs a participation agreement, and the parties resolve property, support, and parenting questions in a series of structured meetings rather than through contested hearings.

Under the Collaborative Law Process Act, both collaborative attorneys are disqualified from representing their clients in contested litigation against the other spouse if the process breaks down. That rule is the engine of the model. It removes the implicit threat of litigation from every conversation in the room, because no lawyer at the table profits from the process failing.

I serve as participating collaborative counsel for one spouse. I sign the participation agreement, prepare you between meetings, and sit at the four-way table on your side. I am not a Florida Supreme Court certified family mediator and I do not serve as the neutral in a collaborative team.

I have completed IACP-format basic collaborative training and accept cases as participating collaborative counsel under Fla. Stat. ch. 61.55 to 61.58. The training is the credentialing baseline. The substantive competence comes from twenty-two years of Florida family law practice under the same statutory framework that governs the collaborative result.

Collaborative teams in Florida commonly include a neutral financial professional and a neutral mental health professional acting as facilitator, in addition to each spouse's attorney. The team composition depends on the case. A matter with a closely held business leans on the financial neutral; a matter with high parenting conflict leans on the facilitator.

Mediation is usually a single session, often ordered by a court, with one neutral and no commitment to stay out of litigation. Collaborative divorce is a series of meetings under a signed participation agreement, with full voluntary financial disclosure and the disqualification rule binding both attorneys. Mediation resolves a dispute; the collaborative process is designed to build the settlement from the ground up.

Collaborative work is billed in the conventional collaborative model rather than as a flat fee, because the length of the process depends on the parties and the complexity of the estate. Total spend is typically a fraction of contested litigation. We discuss the structure and the likely shape of the engagement at your consultation.

If the process ends without agreement, both collaborative attorneys withdraw and each spouse retains new litigation counsel. Documents exchanged in the process may be subject to the confidentiality rules of the Act. That is a real cost and it is why the model is not right for every case.

Where there is domestic violence, a meaningful power imbalance, active concealment of assets, or a spouse who will not disclose voluntarily, the process does not work. Cases that need emergency relief also do not belong here, because the collaborative process has no courtroom in it.

Yes. If you want an independent read on a proposed collaborative settlement before you sign, a Second Opinion is the better fit. It is an advisory review, and I do not take over the matter afterward.

Begin

Collaborative work begins at the consultation call.

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Miami-Dade based and Florida statewide · English & Spanish · Scoped at your consultation

This page is general information about the Florida collaborative law process and is not legal advice about your matter. An attorney-client relationship is established only by a separate signed engagement letter and, for a collaborative matter, a signed participation agreement. Aliette Hernandez Carolan is licensed to practice law in Florida only.

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