Lisa Green’s new book, On Your Case, is a great legal resource for women at all stages in life. Ms. Green is a lawyer and legal analyst who outlined various important issues in a woman’s life – relationships, parenting, employment, and aging – all from a legal perspective. She provides simple pieces of advice and more in-depth education on various matters that arise in life.

One of the best sections, outlines divorce options. When a couple decides to divorce, there are various processes to use to divide assets, work on support options and come up with co-parenting agreements. Ms. Green discusses both DIY (do it yourself) divorce, mediation and collaborative divorce as alternatives to a typical litigation.

Ms. Green provides a nice explanation of the benefits to collaborative divorce – it can be cheaper, less stressful and have less animosity than traditional court-based models. She correctly points out that the collaborative option may be hard to think about at the very onset of a separation – when emotions are hot and anger may cloud judgment. However, for couples who want to maintain control of the process and maintain respect throughout, collaborative law is a good option.

Two important observations in the book, however, are worth noting. Ms. Green identifies a significant power imbalance as a concerning factor to the collaborative process. It can make the process more challenging and the couple may need more support from a collaborative team. Secondly, Ms. Green notes that communication is key to the collaborative process. While litigators often tell clients not to talk to one another – so all communication goes through the lawyers – collaborative clients are expected to communicate and discuss all issues with their team and with each other.

Ms. Green’s book is a great resource for women on all legal issues. On divorce in particular, it has a lot of useful information to start the process and learn about considerations and options. If someone considering divorce wants to learn more about collaborative divorce, they should reach out to a collaborative professional to talk through the option.