Getting a divorce is an extremely emotionally challenging time for anybody. Even people who initiate the divorce may struggle with sadness and guilt. The person who doesn’t want the divorce may feel heartbreak.
However, divorce can be a different thing altogether for people with kids. Let’s look at how empathetic family lawyers can help you and your kids during a divorce.
Healthy Co-parenting Foundation
Hiring a collaborative Toronto family law firm that places a high value on empathy makes it easier to build a healthy foundation for co-parenting. Such lawyers can be firm when needed, but they begin the proceedings with a collaborative approach and tone.
Unlike Hollywood movies, which emphasize fierce courtroom battles, empathetic lawyers aim to ensure their clients have a healthy footing to start being effective, loving co-parents. Divorce can be a real trial and challenging time. Navigating it smoothly, quickly, and with mutual respect makes it easier afterwards to be a co-parent.
You can’t always control how the person you’re separating from responds to the divorce. All you can do is begin with genuine goodwill and prioritize what matters most to you both — your children. If your ex-partner sees you doing that, it will likely reduce the temperature in the proceedings and help start an amicable co-parenting relationship moving forward.
Collaboration for the Win
Family lawyers with empathy help their clients obtain what’s best for their children by collaborating with their ex-partner when doing so makes sense, and there are many such occasions. For example, if the child or children love music and one of the parents is a professional musician, the other parent should respect that and not stand in their child’s way.
Collaborative lawyers seek the best result for their clients, but this is often inseparable from doing what’s best for their kids. After all, what’s the point of maximizing the asset split and custody if that makes the child upset?
Uphold Your Rights
Every parent getting a divorce wants what’s best for their children. That doesn’t mean they don’t also need an advocate to ensure their legal rights are upheld. Leading collaborative lawyers can be tough when it’s necessary.
Even the most amicable contested divorce can have heated disagreements from time to time. It’s natural, given the money and parental rights at stake.
Being a loving co-parent doesn’t mean surrendering all your legal rights to custody and alimony. Of course, there are differing opinions about the right split, but empathetic lawyers who have your back can be trusted to find the proper balance. Their negotiation skills and legal knowledge will be the difference-maker you need when establishing the terms of your new life moving forward.
Being an effective co-parent requires finding common ground with your ex-spouse so your kids can enjoy stability and predictability. However, you must also sort out your own finances and living conditions. You may feel like you’re being pulled in two directions, but the leading collaborative lawyers can help find the right balance for you and your family.
