Shell - "court-ordered" may've been a bit misleading. We're in the Calif. Collaborative Law divorce process -- not "nuclear" litigation. The highlights:
1. It's cheap! If all goes well, we may end up spending 5k each. I've heard mediation is even cheaper.
2. It relies on both parties cooperating as much as possible. In 90 minutes (plus some prep and discovery) we resolved division of property and agreement on custody of our kids.
3. Both parties agree to forfeit all legal costs, retainers and their Ls if they try anything sneaky, i.e. pretending to cooperative and then skipping town with kids once the D is entered. My WAW wants to move 200 miles to the town where the OM and his W and kids live. Even though she says he broke it off weeks ago. So even if her L learned that was her true intention, he is obligated to abort the CL process, mine would too, and we'd have to go hire brand new LITIGATORS to start WWIII from scratch.
Amazingly, we're on track to complete this deal in just 3 meetings (early Oct, late Oct and mid Nov), and then come April we'll officially be single.
I used to hope she'd wake up from the fog by then --- this week I really don't care since I'm detaching mentally in a big way. But then I know this E-ticket ride ain't over yet.
One final IRONIC thing -- I looked up I Do Again, and the couple who co-authored the book have the same first names as my wife and the OM. Spooky.
