Participation Agreements

A participation agreement is one of the documents that is used in a collaborative divorce. To refresh from a previous post on what a collaborative divorce is, it is basically a divorce process in which both parties agree not to go to divorce court.

The role of the participation agreement in a collaborative divorce is to set rules and guidelines for how the divorce process is going to work. Although this agreement sets forth the process that does not involve the courts, it is very common to still hire divorce attorneys to aid in the proceedings.

In order to fulfil the purpose of the participation agreement, both the divorce lawyers and also the two parties must agree that:

- There is no litigation by either attorney in the case. If the participation agreement is not followed, and the collaborative divorce fails, then new lawyers must be obtained.

- If one party makes an honest mistake during the procedure, then the other must not take advantage of this.

- All relevant information will be disclosed at will.

- The meetings are completely confidential.

- Any subject matter expert that is involved in the divorce case must be neutral and agreed upon by all parties involved.

- All parties must act in good faith.