I used to work for a collaborative divorce attorney. The process is very different from litigative divorce. The focus of the process is to make sure the clients (man and wife) are heard, that they get to control the process (rather than the attorneys controlling it), and that the children and finances are handled in a way that is more helpful to the clients and the children in the end. When you enter the collaborative process, both clients and the attorneys sign an agreement that says "we will not go to court, instead we will mediate until we are in agreement, and then we will file an agreed upon judgment to the court". This is so that both clients know that the other will not just say one thing in mediation but then something different to their attorney. It is not a "fight" between two attorneys but instead, a collaboration of both attorneys and both clients.
It is a very difficult process however and not all couples should use it. The reason for this is that the couple will have to have a lot of face to face interaction to complete all the necessary mediation sessions, and some couples just cannot face each other during these times. Some would rather let the attorneys handle it than have to face their soon to be ex, which is understandable in many cases.
I worked for that attorney for over 2 years and it took me that full 2 years to really understand the collaborative divorce process, it is very new and is a totally different model than litigative divorce.
