Our Story – What Makes Us Different

We have witnessed firsthand the emotional and financial destruction that can occur when a family is subjected to the adversarial nature of divorce litigation playing out in the courtroom.  

The truth that we have learned in more than fifteen years of handling divorce cases in Palm Beach County is that filing a lawsuit against your spouse and demanding that he or she be required to answer your lawsuit against them in Court is not the best option to resolve your family or financial issues.

Instead, divorce litigation will very often add fuel to an already difficult situation.  Lawyers will prepare an array of legal pleadings that often accuse you and/or your spouse of financial and emotional malfeasance that simply does not exist.  Next, a process server or sheriff will serve you or your spouse at your home or place of employment with a divorce lawsuit.  Many different deadlines will then be set by the Court.  You and your spouse will be forced to air your dirty laundry out in public court files and to comply with schedules and timelines that are set by lawyers and judges.  Your confidential financial and family matters are published in court files that are accessible to the public.

Eventually, your litigated divorce will be resolved in one of two ways: 

Option 1 -Trial

3% of the divorce cases in Palm Beach County end in trial. 

If you are part of this 3% demographic, you will attend a public trial approximately 12-18 months after your divorce filing.  You will testify in court against your spouse.  You will bring any witnesses that your lawyer feels are necessary to disparage your spouse and bolster you. 

Your spouse and their attorney will do the exact same thing.  A judge whom neither of you have ever met before will then issue a written ruling deciding how all of your assets and liabilities will be split, deciding if either of you is responsible for spousal support, and deciding how a parenting plan will work for your minor children, if you have children under the age of 18.

Option 2 – Mediated Settlement Agreement

97% of the cases filed in Palm Beach County end with a written settlement agreement signed by both spouses. 

Mediation is a court required settlement process that requires both you and your spouse to attend a settlement conference before your case proceeds to trial.  Depending on the facts of your case, and who the lawyers are that are representing you and your spouse, you may have the opportunity to attend mediation with 60-90 days of filing a divorce lawsuit, or you may wait more than 180 days to attend mediation.  Once you make it to mediation, you will have the opportunity to discuss the factual and legal issues of your divorce with a neutral mediator and ask them to assist you in reaching a compromise that both you and your spouse can agree upon.  Mediation is a very good process in my opinion, however, it does have some downsides.  The biggest one being that litigation creates a major barrier to getting to mediation. 

Lawyers, and the discovery process in divorce can create a long delay before you have the opportunity to discuss settlement.  Next, mediation can be an all or nothing proposition where you are forced to agree to settle every issue in your divorce during a one day mediation conference.  The truth is that if you and your spouse built a life together, it takes time to come up with a plan and a fair compromise to untangle everything that you all have built together.

Collaborative Divorce – A Better Solution

For the reasons above, we focus our law practice on helping families keep their divorce out of the court system.  Mr. Layton has practiced Family and Marital law in Palm Beach County for over fifteen years. 

He is trained as a Collaborative Divorce attorney, and as a Mediator.  These skills, along with our staff and our procedures, allow us to help you focus on resolutions and compromises that are fair under the law for every member of your family.  We provide you with a structured process that allows both you and your spouse to commit to handling your divorce with peace and respect.  

Here are the steps we take:

• We work hard to identify and to resolve your goals, concerns, legal questions, and unknowns.
• Next, we work with you to build a plan, and a professional team to address every issue in your divorce. 
• We research and outline all of the most important issues that you will decide, such as Property and Debt Distribution, Brokerage and Retirement Accounts, Spousal Support or Alimony, Business Ownership Interests, Parenting Plans, and Child Support.  
• We schedule multiple settlement conferences with clear agendas and attorney preparation for each.  You are provided with the time, space and support that you need between sessions to make prudent decisions.  We work with financial professionals and mental health professionals to ensure that all aspects of your divorce are properly addressed.  

Conclusion

We help you gather the information and resources that are required for you to make informed decisions in your divorce that will affect the rest of your life.  We help you to negotiate terms that are in line with the law, and that are fair to you and your family.  We prepare all of the required legal documents to effectuate your agreement.

This process generally takes us 3-5 months to complete.  

At its conclusion, you are rewarded with a custom Collaborative Marital Settlement Agreement that is your own.  Our staff will handle the legal work to have your divorce finalized, this generally takes 20-30 days after your Collaborative Marital Settlement Agreement is signed.  

Your divorce solution will not be an arbitrary ruling from a judge that decides how your life will look moving forward.  

Instead, you will have a durable and custom solution that is the result of experienced legal guidance, and informed decision making on your part.  You and your family will move forward to the next chapter in your life, knowing that you handled your divorce in the best way possible.  You avoided the emotional and financial destruction that often comes with divorce lawsuits.