HAROLD BRIENES, Collaborative & Mediation

          I have been privileged for 27-years, to help hundreds of Connecticut men and women cope with the crisis of divorce. Every one of my clients wants his or her marriage to end with dignity and mutual respect. In the early days of my career, that was often an unfulfilled hope. In those days, divorcing couples had very little choice other than to hire lawyers to fight it out in court. And, as we all know, divorce too often became mortal combat. The law calls it litigation. I call it war. When each spouse feels impelled to hire the biggest junkyard dog in town to attack the other spouse, what better description is there than war?

           It was painful to see good people surrender their autonomy to litigating lawyers, whose goal was to grab as many of the goodies from the other lawyer’s client as possible. And, as expensive as divorce was, the cost was more than in money. It was in surrendering control of your life to your lawyer and the court system; In the loss of whatever was good in your relationship; In the inevitable choosing-up of sides, the bitterness of broken friendships; In the painful shattering of once-close family bonds. And, most heartbreaking, in the damage inflicted by an uncaring system on your ability to effectively co-parent your children.

There are better ways, and thousands of people like you are choosing them. They’re called Divorce Mediation, Marital Mediation and Collaborative Divorce.

You can compare those options to litigation by pressing "Compare Divorce Options"

on the menu at the left side of this page.