Research by Resolution has shown that the overwhelming majority of people in the West Midlands believe that putting children’s interests first or avoiding conflict are the most important factors if going through divorce.
More than four out of five people (83%) say that putting children’s interests first would be their most or second most important consideration in a divorce, and half (51%) would prioritise making the divorce as conflict-free as possible.
Despite this, over four-fifths of people (83%) believe that children end up being the main casualties of divorce, and 45% believe that conflict is inevitable in separation and divorce. Despite the increasing availability of non-court alternatives, half (51%) think that most divorces involve a visit to court.
In stark contrast to some of the high-profile divorce cases in recent years, financial factors are not seen as particularly important, with just 1% saying that being financially better off than their partner would be the most important consideration should they divorce.
The survey was conducted to mark Family Dispute Resolution Week, which is being held to raise awareness of non-confrontational methods of resolving family breakdown, such as mediation, collaborative law and arbitration.
As part of the week, Resolution has launched a new on-line advice guide, ‘Separating Together: Your options for separation and divorce‘, designed to help separating couples understand and explore non-court based methods of resolving issues arising on the breakdown of a relationship.
The findings highlight how people have good intentions to prioritise the well-being of children and to avoid conflict during separation, but this can often be derailed by a lack of knowledge of non-court based options and an exposure to the adversarial nature of courts. Something is going very wrong, and often the result is emotionally and financially drained parents, and deeply distressed children.
However, there is another way. As collaborative divorce lawyers in Wolverhampton we’re working with Resolution in supporting this guide because we want separating couples to know about non-confrontational alternatives to court. These methods can help prevent separation and divorce from being needlessly adversarial, and often can benefit the whole family through fairer settlements and by prioritising the interests of children.
Source: http://familylawanddivorceblog.blogspot.co.uk/
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