collaborative law

Is it possible if you can agree everything beforehand that you can fill in all of the paperwork for a divorce in one go....initial paperwork,financial stuff and the children stuff with collaborative lawyers to guide things ? or does it have to be done in stages ....what i mean is have the solicitor with everything signed etc ready to go but just send it in at the appropriate times if that makes sense?

If you have agreed everything you don`t need collaborative lawyers in fact solicitor involvement can be minimal, in fact the wiki service would be ideal.

So if you have agreement the divorce application goes in along with the statement of arrangements for the children the stbx agrees and signs, then its some paperwork for the solicitor then the judge will send the Decree Nisi, then its time for the Consent Order that says who gets what, that goes to court along with another form, after that its just a waiting game for the six weeks and one day for the Decree Absolute.

And that`s it your done.

Hi dukey
thankyou for your reply the only reason i was thinking of going down the collaborative route was i think our finances might be a bit complicated as my OH is self employed and is part owner in a partnership and has loads of different pensions etc
or is that all easier to work out ourselves than i think?
the other thing is at the moment my OH has said he will give me anything i want but his behaviour is very volatile to say the least i just want to do what will be the fairest outcome for both of us and our children.
it is unlikely there will be any problems about arrangements for the children as they will stay with me and he can see/have them whenever he likes because he is their dad and until now has been the best father they could have asked for