The Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reports this past weekend that the Governor of Wisconsin and the Mayor of Milwaukee have recognized the reality that a divorce doesn't mean the end of a family - and that the WAY you get divorced can impact greatly on your children and yourselves.
As reported in the Journal Sentinel last Thursday:
Both Gov. Scott Walker and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett have proclaimed next week "Family is Forever - Children and Divorce Awareness Week" in Wisconsin and Milwaukee, respectively. These proclamations do not speak to the rightness or wrongness of divorce. As these proclamations from two leaders suggest, this is not a political issue.
These proclamations do challenge us all to consider the impact of divorce upon children. And they do support the use of the collaborative practice in family law and for divorce in particular.
And the article goes on to support Collaborative Law as a process to help maintain a healthy family after divorce:
These proclamations do challenge us all to consider the impact of divorce upon children. And they do support the use of the collaborative practice in family law and for divorce in particular.
The guiding principle in collaborative practice is that despite divorce, a family can be forever. The collaborative divorce process has a simple goal: resolve family issues using professionals trained to do so without the destructive aspects of litigation.
The use of a collaborative team addresses the emotional aspects that emerge in such intimate conflicts and permits the development of a parenting plan by coaches trained in this area. It allows a financial "neutral" to prepare a detailed financial plan based on reality, not a "winner/loser" mind-set reinforced by the combative legal process. This allows the attorney to focus on the law rather than on other family issues for which he or she is not necessarily trained.
Well done Wisconsin.
Now, consider for a moment.
Governor Scott Walker is a conservative republican, in fact, he's recently been on the hot seat for his position on reducing public employees' ability to strike.
But the importance of maintaining civility and "family" transcends political boundaries.
At least in Wisconsin.
In Alberta - well, maybe not too much. At least for now. While current leadership hopeful Allison Redford has made overtures suggesting she is supportive of the process, to this point our Conservative government has chosen to ignore the promise of Collaborative law. And this is notwithstanding a policy proposal from the members of the PC Party passed at policy conference asking the government to do provide such support.
So.
If you think that "family is forever", if you think that the Alberta government should encourage Albertans to work out divorce issues collaboratively, tell your MLA. Ask them why our former Attorney General Allison Redford refuses to support collaborative law to resolve divorces.
And then - if you, or someone you know, is in the midst of a family breakdown - maybe mention Collaborative Law to them.
It might just save a family.
Because the "family" doesn't end when the marriage is over.
No comments:
Post a Comment