Does every divorce or child custody case have to end in a bitter trial? While in days gone by, Fort Worth Divorce Lawyers devoted the majority of their time to preparing clients for that day of reckoning at the courthouse, times have changed. Although popular media still glorifies the drama of such trials, family law lawyers in Dallas and Fort Worth have embraced collaborative law as a smart alternative to trial.
Divorce trials put people in an adversarial framework where the only means of achieving success is at the expense of their spouse. Unfortunately, Attorneys learned that such “winner take all” conflicts at the courthouse did not lay the foundation for effective co-parenting post-divorce. Ultimately, it is the children of these divorces who pay the ultimate price when they are caught in the middle of parental conflict and bitterness caused by a bitter divorce.
What makes the collaborative divorce different? In a collaborative divorce, divorcing couples sign a Collaborative Law participation agreement that requires they do not seek any relief from a court while participating in the process. How do things get resolved without family court and a Judge? Issues are resolved through a series of four-way meetings, face to face, between the spouses and their collaborative attorneys.
Collaborative divorce requires a full and complete disclosure of marital property and debts and a meaningful exchange of ideas between the parties focus on their needs rather than seeking an advantage over the other spouse. While divorcing couples still have conflict and disagreements in collaborative divorce, the process gives them a “safe” way to systematically work on the issues without resort to personal attacks on the other spouse.
Collaborative law attorneys in Fort Worth and in Dallas are experiencing rapid growth in their practices as divorcing couples learn about the advantages of the collaborative process. Finally, divorce lawyers have found a way to be a part of the solution rather than a part of the problem.
<strong>But how do you get started with a collaborative divorce?</strong> First, you need to find a family attorney who is trained in the collaborative law process.
Next, you need to educate your spouse about the collaborative law process and it’s benefits for divorcing couples. At Schreier & Housewirth family law, we have helpful written materials you can give to your spouse that will clearly explain the process. Remember, both you and your spouse have to agree to use the collaborative divorce process rather than divorce by trial. Finally, your spouse will need to locate a lawyer. As members of the Collaborative Law Institute of Texas and the Tarrant County Collaborative Professionals, we can help your husband access our collaborative professionals network in the Dallas and Fort Worth area.
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There are many ways through which a family law matter may be resolved. In addition to other manners of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), such as mediation or arbitration, there is the traditional litigation way in which cases are taken to court. However, many families have discovered that leaving the decisions up to the judge is not in their best interests. An up-and-coming avenue for resolving a divorce and other family law issues, collaborative law is a process through which the …
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Summarize evaluation reports of a community-oriented policing program or effort.?Working with the assumption that you have been hired as consultants to implement and evaluate a community policing effort for a fictitious mid-sized municipal police agency. Here is the article: 6 Bringing Victims into Community Policing
prevention" is something that police organizations tend to
do at a community or group level. Victim service
organizations are often hesitant to focus on crime
prevention because they are usually focused exclusively on
the aftermath of crime. However, victim service
organizations, especially those working on domestic
violence and stalking, often assist individual victims with
"safety planning" to develop strategies to maximize the
victim's safety. Collaborative efforts using both these
approaches could prove to be very effective.
In summary, our overall project has reinforced for us the
importance of closer collaboration between crime victims,
crime victim organizations, and the police. It is time to bring
the victim into community policing.
Our work shows that community policing can be greatly
enhanced by working to prevent repeat victimization and
building collaborative problem solving relationships with
victims and victim organizations. The information and tools
included in this package are a distillation of all that we have
learned over the last 18 months about the relationship
between police and crime victims. We hope that these
materials will help police organizations enhance the practice
of community policing by building stronger problem solving
relationships with crime victims and the organizations that
serve them.The Promise of Preventing Repeat Victimization
A fundamental tenet of community policing holds that police
should work with community-based partners to solve
problems. The most difficult aspect of problem solving is the
identification and effective analysis of problems. Police
organizations use an array of macro-level tactics to identify
and analyze crime problems. Data are collected, crime maps
are analyzed, patrol officers are surveyed, and community
organizations are consulted. This approach depends on a high
level of resources and tends to only identify problems once
they have become big enough to draw police attention.
In contrast, identifying and preventing repeat victimization is
problem solving that starts at the micro level. Because repeat
victimization affects individual people and targets, effective
problem solving begins at an individual level and moves to
larger groups when appropriate.
To fully understand the nature of repeat victimization and
develop effective responses, law enforcement agencies must
capitalize on non-traditional as well as traditional sources of
information. It's essential, for example, to look beyond arrest
data and calls for service and consider residential, business
and environmental surveys, victim and offender interviews,
mapping/GIS data, and social services data. The next task is
to analyze this data.
Thorough data analysis can yield surprising information about
underlying causes, illuminating problems and pointing the way
to solutions. Only through sound analysis can the detailed
picture needed to fashion effective responses emerge. Without
it, opportunities to develop alternative, non-traditional
responses are likely to be missed and strategies to prevent
repeat victimization are likely to fail.
One final point. Effective first response is vital to address the
problem of repeat victimization. But, it can also reduce
reliance on resource-intensive problem identification methods,
enabling the early resolution of crime problems.
Implications of a Policy to Prevent Repeat
Victimization
This policy creates an approach to preventing repeat
victimization that focuses on victim safety and strengthens the
foundation of community policing: partnering and problem
solving. Creating an organizational focus on preventing repeat
victimization of individuals will affect many principles
governing police operations.
