Husband and wife get separated. Wife’s attorney gets an order from the Court for Wife to live in the family home with the children exclusively without husband and for husband to pay monthly child support and spousal support to the wife.

Husband does not pay his support payments and ends up owing support to the wife.

At the end of the case, because the parties don’t agree on who owns the house, the court orders the house sold.

Husband states to the Court that since they both owned the house and Wife was living in the house exclusively, wife owed him one-half the rental value of the house.

The Court agreed and offset support obligations with 1/2 of the monthly rental value of the house during the time Wife lived there exclusively.

Couples who go through the Collaborative process, reach agreements with the understanding and support of their attorneys who work together in a non-adversarial way. They are more likely to comply with their agreements because it was not forced upon them. There is more compassion in the Collaborative process than an adversarial process.