Law Office of Donald D. Vanarelli Blog

Below is a listing of the 2011 Officers and Directors of the New Jersey Collaborative Law Group (NJCLG). I’m a member of the NJCLG Board of Directors this year. NJCLG is an educational, not-for-profit association of collaborative professionals established in 2008. I’m proud to be able to say I was one of the founders of [...]

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What Is Collaborative Law? Collaborative law is an emerging dispute resolution technique in which each party retains a lawyer, but the lawyers pledge not to resort to the courts (or threaten to do so) to resolve issues. If the collaborative technique is unsuccessful, the lawyers must withdraw, and the parties start over through litigation. How [...]

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When a couple decides to divorce, the spouses have important choices to make about how to proceed and the extent to which they will need help from others — including lawyers, mediators, and other professionals. Some couples choose to file for divorce in court and go on to lengthy, high-conflict divorce litigation. Others choose an [...]

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The collaborative divorce process works best if, at the start of the process, all participants, including the divorcing couple and their lawyers, give each other permission to comment tactfully and constructively when the following suggestions for effective negotiations are not being applied: View your “ex” as a vital problem-solving colleague in collaborative negotiations. Be constructive. [...]

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These guidelines are intended to establish a framework for collaborative family law negotiations undertaken by members of the New Jersey Collaborative Law Group. In order to provide some predictability to the collaborative negotiations, it is anticipated that these guidelines will be followed in most cases. These guidelines are not intended to be exhaustive. Before the [...]

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Here’s a memorable sentence: “Nobody can relate to the raw, visceral experience of ending a marriage better than someone who has gone through it.” Amen to that. Based on that insight, the NY Times published an article this past Sunday entitled “Experienced in Love and Money” which summarized advice from financial experts about what they [...]

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Recently, Fox News did a video segment and report on collaborative divorce which featured two members of the New Jersey Collaborative Law Group (NJCLG), divorce lawyer Amy Schimalla and financial planner Jody D’agostini, giving an overview of the collaborative divorce process. (I’m one of the founding members of the NJCLG.) Though brief, the video does [...]

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In a recent article published in Inside Jersey magazine, collaborative divorce is described as “the newest method of alternative dispute resolution.” The author explained the collaborative divorce process as follows: Rather than two sides preparing for a knockdown, drag-out fight [in court], the  collaborative process is designed to allow spouses to negotiate with each other’s [...]

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Increasingly, couples are seeking more constructive and less expensive alternatives to litigating their divorce, child custody and support issues in court. One alternative is collaborative divorce (also known as collaborative law, collaborative practice and collaborative family law). In a collaborative divorce, lawyers, mental health professionals and financial specialists work together with the divorcing couple to [...]

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The Wall Street Journal published an article today discussing the increasing number of couples separating and divorcing as a result of financial hardship brought on by the recession. Yet, according to the Journal, the recession also is causing some unhappy couples to rethink their marital situation, since a costly divorce would only further deplete already-shrunken [...]

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