Answer: In cooperative divorces, the divorcing parties make a commitment to help themselves, and their lawyers commit to do their share to keep things sensible and cooperative. The lawyers join in to strengthen the parties’ resolve by:

• Acknowledging and encouraging each client’s willingness to formalize his or her commitment to cooperate by entering into a Cooperative Divorce Law Participation Agreement
• Stressing the significance and potential value to each party of their receiving the other party’s promise to negotiate with respect and civility
• Agreeing to make their clients aware of all reasonable avenues of settlement
• Encouraging their clients to problem solve their way through the conflict instead of fighting their way through it
• Joining together and making a deliberate effort to subdue the disruptive, angry, or emotional outbursts of both parties
• Encouraging their clients to take only sensible bargaining positions
• Agreeing to cooperate toward narrowing issues
• Encouraging their clients to keep an open mind when it comes to compromise
• Agreeing, whenever possible, to customize discovery requests to fit the case at hand
• Agreeing to treat their client’s spouse with respect and in a non-threatening, non-confrontational, non-accusatory, and non- argumentative fashion at all times, including, but not limited to, four-way settlement meetings, depositions, court hearings, and meetings of any kind.

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Richard and Kari are staunch advocates of the non-court approach to divorce, and are also active and seasoned litigators with over 60 years of combined trial experience in the Illinois divorce courts of Cook, DuPage, and Kane counties.