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Lori D. Becker Named a Top Up & Coming Lawyer!
Lori D. Becker was picked by Michigan Lawyer’s Weekly Newspaper as one of the top Up & Coming Lawyers in the state of Michigan.
Spotlight Article: Appeared in the Newspaper
Announcement: The announcement of the list
Lori Becker is the president and managing partner of Becker Legal P.C. in Bloomfield, Michigan. Lori is a mediator, divorce attorney with specialized training in the collaborative divorce method. She can be reached at (248) 885-8660, lbecker@beckerlegalgroup.com.
Why Collaborative Divorce?
Divorce doesn’t have to tear apart your family. By utilizing the collaborative divorce method you can avoid the emotional heartache that so often arises out of traditional divorce litigation.
Unlike a traditional divorce, the collaborative divorce method allows you and your spouse to talk to each other rather than through your attorneys. This opens up the process to a spirit of cooperation and negotiation that helps keep the relationship amicable. This is especially important if children are involved.
In a collaborative divorce, you retain control. Your family is unique and deserves a unique solution to the issues raised in your separation or divorce proceeding. Rather than having a judge make the important decisions for your family, the collaborative divorce method allows you and your spouse to take responsibility for shaping a settlement as key members of your divorce team.
While there is no pain-free way to end a marriage, through the collaborative divorce method you can lay the groundwork for a better future. By reducing the stress typically associated with traditional divorce, by working together in a climate of cooperation, and by treating each other with respect, you and your spouse will create an environment in which you and your children can thrive after your divorce is over.
Please review Divorce: Collaborative vs. Litigation.
Lori Becker is the president and managing partner of Becker Legal P.C. in Bloomfield, Michigan. Lori is a mediator, divorce attorney with specialized training in the collaborative divorce method. She can be reached at (248) 885-8660, lbecker@beckerlegalgroup.com.
Elected!
Lori D. Becker has just become the first person from Michigan ever elected to the Board of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals!
This is a big deal for Lori as it is an international recognition of the great collaborative work she’s been doing in Michigan.
Visit Becker Legal, P.C.’s home www.BeckerLegalGroup.com
Lori D. Becker received some local press from the Oakland County Legal News for the Open House she hosted celebrating her election.
A Team Approach to Divorce That Can Save You Money
Divorce involves an intertwining of complex emotional, financial and legal issues. With these very diverse fields involved, why do most divorce attorneys pretend to be experts in all of them? The truth is that no single professional has the range of skills to address each issue involved in a divorce as comprehensively as is necessary for the best divorce outcome.
Then how does someone get the encompassing legal service they deserve during a divorce?
Collaborative divorce offers the answer. A key component in the collaborative process is the involvement of outside professionals. The collaborative divorce process offers a range of specifically trained experts who are utilized based on your family’s specific needs. They can include financial specialists, divorce coaches, and child specialists. These professionals have received the same unique training in the collaborative process that your attorneys have. They are usually local professionals who have assisted in the collaborative divorce process many times before.
These professional neutrals are present at meetings with both spouses and both attorneys to assist in attaining the healthiest and most fair divorce negotiations. They lend their expertise to specific areas of the divorce to help with issues that the attorneys and spouses are not experts on. They can be especially helpful in cases involving children, as they can develop an unbiased opinion of what is best for the children in each specific divorce case.
Their professional assistance is also helpful in divorces involving unique financial considerations. Cases involving a shared business between the spouses or other assets are best handled with a trained financial professional sitting right at the table with both parties.
What may also come as a surprise is that professional experts assist in making the divorce process more efficient and less expensive. In a litigated divorce, both spouses and their attorneys have to pay for their own experts to testify against experts on the other side. This means twice the experts and twice the money. There is also a long process of preparing the experts for court that wastes more time and money. When you have the right team available to help with the issues, the divorce process moves quickly and economically and at a higher level of sophistication. That’s why — paradoxically – a collaborative divorce generally costs less, not more.
The ability to have trained professionals join the divorce negotiations in a non-adversarial manner is an unrivaled advantage of collaborative divorce, and one that could make the difference in your divorce.
Lori Becker is the president and managing partner of Becker Legal P.C. in Bloomfield, Michigan. Lori is a mediator, divorce attorney with specialized training in the collaborative divorce method. She can be reached at (248) 885-8660, lbecker@beckerlegalgroup.com.
Collaborative Divorce : Revolutionizing the Way Divorces Are Handled
A new paradigm is needed for the way family law is practiced in Michigan, and a new method called Collaborative Divorce is leading the way.
Divorce is a life-changing event. A select group of attorneys can now offer a better way to end a marriage through specialized advanced training in Collaborative Divorce. This groundbreaking method revolutionizes the way couples divorce. It addresses your legal, financial, and emotional needs and achieves the best family arrangement possible. Families at war produce only losers and no winners. This exciting new process empowers you – not lawyers or a judge – to shape the outcome of your divorce.
The key benefits of Collaborative Divorce are that it is non-adversarial; solutions can be tailor-made and flexible; clients have control of the pace; experts (accountants, financial advisers, therapists or counselors) can be brought in and work with the couples; and privacy is preserved.
“I believe that Collaborative Divorce is the most exciting development in family law in many, many years. Clients love it; they regard the process as direct, clear and amicable while avoiding the expenses and latent aggression of the court process.” Says Lori D. Becker, Bloomfield Hills Divorce Attorney and Mediator.
Each spouse retains their own specially trained collaborative lawyer, if they wish to achieve the many benefits of collaborative divorce. Traditional lawyers, no matter how friendly or cooperative, lack the special skills and training that collaborative lawyers can provide.
Becker is one of the few Michigan divorce attorneys trained in Collaborative Divorce, in which both spouses’ divorce attorneys negotiate a settlement outside of court – with a written agreement not to litigate.
“It’s a healthier way to help families,” says Becker. “Collaborative Divorce is a holistic approach to family law. Attorneys trained in this method are highly skilled not only in family law, but in effective communication, cooperative negotiation, and creative problem-solving. With a Collaborative Divorce, you get a plan on how to handle future issues.”
Working with a team of caring specialists that includes two lawyers, two coaches, a financial consultant, and a child specialist (if necessary), you and your spouse focus on building a consensus that addresses the needs of everyone who will be directly affected by the divorce.
Every divorce involves a complex intertwining of emotional, financial and legal issues that no single professional has the range of skills to address comprehensively. When you have the right team member available to help solve the problem, it usually gets solved more quickly and economically and at a higher level of sophistication. You’re less likely to return again and again to court to rehash problems that weren’t really resolved in the first place. That’s why — paradoxically — a team generally costs a couple less, not more.
“Through divorce coaching, I have seen dramatic improvement in the way couples communicate – even in the most contentious cases” states Dr. Nancy Fishman, a Birmingham Mental Health Specialist. “For example, if one of you is frightened or angry, instead of going to the divorce lawyer, you’ll spend a few sessions in coaching and then come back to the legal negotiating table much better equipped to think clearly and negotiate for long-term lasting resolution. You spend only what is needed for the right kind of constructive help to solve the problem. It can be instrumental in keeping the legal fees from escalating.”
People need to be educated about conflict – specifically, avoiding it when appropriate, using the energy in a more constructive way, and saving the courtroom only for truly immovable, conflicted cases. Collaborative Divorce specialists create long-term financial and parenting plans that work by enabling their clients to understand and address their children’s needs while conserving emotional and financial resources, and by helping clients play an active role in designing their lives after divorce. Cutting corners in how you meet the challenges of a divorce may be the most expensive thing you can do.
Lori Becker is the president and managing partner of Becker Legal P.C. in Bloomfield, Michigan. Lori is a mediator, divorce attorney with specialized training in the collaborative divorce method. She can be reached at (248) 885-8660, lbecker@beckerlegalgroup.com.
If you are thinking about getting a divorce, consider Collaborative Divorce
Collaborative divorce law is a relatively new, multi-disciplinary approach designed to minimize conflict while enabling divorcing couples to find a way to resolve their differences on all relevant issues. The process places a deep emphasis on negotiation and working together.
You may be worried that you and your spouse will be unable to reach an agreement. Collaborative attorneys have been trained to effectively work with couples that have considerable conflict. You will not be alone. Your attorney will be there with you to ensure your needs are addressed, and to facilitate negotiations with your spouse.
First, you and your spouse will meet with your respective collaborative attorneys to discuss your individual needs and concerns. Then, everyone agrees that they will all work toward an effective solution for both spouses. You, your spouse, and both attorneys then meet in four-way sessions to reach a settlement without involving the court. Every issue, including property division, custody, and support, will be put “on the table” in these sessions.
At the beginning of the process, you, your spouse, and both attorneys will sign a Participation Agreement. The agreement requires both parties to:
- exchange complete financial information so that each spouse can make well-informed decisions;
- maintain absolute confidentiality during the process, so that each spouse can feel free to express his or her needs and concerns;
- reach a written agreement on all issues and concerns outside of contested court proceedings,
- avoid threats of litigation or adversarial procedures; and authorize the attorneys to use the written agreement to obtain a final court decree.
In addition, instead of using only attorneys for this process, you will have access to a team of professionals, each specializing in a different field of expertise. As needed, your Collaborative Team may include mental health professionals to coach you and your spouse, a child specialist to give your children a voice in the process, and a financial specialist (such as a qualified financial specialist or certified divorce financial analyst) to help both you and your spouse analyze the impact of your financial decisions.
This Collaborative Team approach is successful, because it uniquely lays a solid foundation for a future parenting partnership between you and your spouse, and between both parents and the children. It creates an atmosphere of hope for your whole family: that your future together will be trouble-free and secure, even if the family has been restructured into two homes.
All the professionals involved – the attorneys, the mental health professionals, and the financial specialists – have special training to help contain the cost of the divorce process, by using limited family funds in the most effective way possible. You can use the financial specialist as a neutral to work on budgeting and property distribution, and a child specialist as a neutral to work on parenting issues. The attorneys are always available for consultation as problem areas are addressed.
During this process, you will benefit from the skills, advice, and support of attorneys and other helping professionals while striving to work things out in a positive, future-focused manner. Working together enables you to dissolve the marriage in a way that addresses everyone’s legal, financial, and emotional needs within the resources of the family. When a settlement is reached, the collaborative attorneys will file the appropriate paperwork required by the court to complete your divorce.
Lori Becker is the president and managing partner of Becker Legal P.C. in Bloomfield, Michigan. Lori is a mediator, divorce attorney with specialized training in the collaborative divorce method. She can be reached at (248) 885-8660, lbecker@beckerlegalgroup.com.
Welcome to Becker Legal!
Watch this blog for articles about Becker Legal, P.C. and the exciting new practice of Collaborative Divorce!
You can also check us out at www.BeckerLegalGroup.com
Contact Becker Legal:
Phone: 248-885-8660
Fax: 248-885-8610
E-mail: info@BeckerLegalGroup.com
Location:
33 Bloomfield Hills Parkway, Ste. 270
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304
