From Carl Arnold, Esq.:
The New York Times recently ran an article titled “Quick Getaways, at the Divorce Hotel“. It was about a business called “Divorce Hotel” where couples could check in married and check out divorced. The business would provide a schedule, legal advice, whatever the couple needed to get through the divorce process. Although the article says that the concept is applied in Europe, they hope to bring the idea to the United States.
I’m a little hesitant, but I think that for some people this could be a great model. We have often talked about doing something we’ve named “Destination Divorces” where we would take couples on a cruise or vacation to Hawaii or something like that and during the trip we could relax, for example over an extended weekend, and have some ocean views while stepping through the divorce process.
The price could actually be less than many divorces that go to court! Imagine that! You would get to be in a pampered environment, and have a meeting or two each day related to the divorce, and you could be done quickly and spend less money than going to court!
This model could work really well in a Collaborative Divorce setting where the couple agrees to each hire a Collaboratively trained lawyer and that they will not go to court with those lawyers. In a sense, this just makes the Collaborative process a little shorter by making the time between meetings less and makes the environment much more fun! It could also work in a mediation environment. The mediator (or mediators, if you are using co-mediation with a male and female team of mediators) would run all the meetings and provide a summary of the agreements at the end.
To make this work, the couple would need to have all their financial information collected and shared beforehand. In my view, there would also have to be an option to not come to final agreements or to have the ability to not agree at all. Some people just need to sleep on things for a week or two before deciding, rather than just sleeping on a decision for one or two nights. Also, some cases are not going to settle and it would be inappropriate to hold someone hostage, even in a sunny tropical environment, unless they agree. So, as long as that was clear, it seems like many couples could do quite well in this sort of pampered environment!
Read more at Always Family Center.
ABC Collaborative Divorce Blog 
Posted on October 9, 2013
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