The Center for Out-of-Court Divorce

Last month, Australia’s Attorney-General announced he would continue with a plan to merge the specialist Family Court of Australia with the lower-level Federal Circuit Court, with the aim to improve efficiency, but not everyone is convinced.

Based on IAALS' model for out-of-court divorce, the Family Resolutions Specialty Court in Massachusetts helps parents of minor children work through issues related to divorce, separation, paternity, and more—and keeps the focus on the best interests of the child.

Innovations in the delivery of legal services can also be laboratories for testing innovations in legal education. Many innovations in education spring from the IAALS out-of-court divorce model and had an effect on the law students who participated in the on-campus center that provided the services.

It is no secret that divorce poses significant problems for those who go through the legal process. The adversarial nature of the legal process can put people at odds with one another and the courts are not well-positioned to provide emotional and future-planning support. IAALS has released a new report detailing the...

Too often, an adversarial family court process does not provide the best outcomes for families going through divorce or separation. Yet, most people are still primarily directed to the courts for resolution of these family law issues—and most courts hearing these matters have overburdened dockets and lack the...

Last month in Miami, Florida, the Center for Out-of-Court Divorce (COCD), together with IAALS at the University of Denver, received Meritorious Recognition from the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services in connection with its annual Louis M. Brown Award for Legal Access . The Committee cited that it...

We are reaching out to encourage you—as a supporter of our work—to vote! Recently, the Center for Out-of-Court Divorce , together with IAALS at the University of Denver, was honored to be a nominee for the 2017 American Bar Association Louis M. Brown Award for Legal Access. As a nominee of the Brown Award, we are also...

Reporter Haley Cohen of The Economist recently toured the Center for Out-of-Court Divorce (COCD) in Denver and wrote about her experience in a December article titled Disruptive Innovation: A spate of start-ups offer alternatives to traditional divorce . We’re delighted to see the COCD attract international media...

We are pleased to announce the results of our evaluation of the Resource Center for Separating and Divorcing Families (RCSDF)—the first manifestation of the IAALS Honoring Families Initiative ’s out-of-court model for separation and divorce . This non-adversarial model is designed to guide families through the process...

For separating and divorcing families, access to justice can be hard to come by. Our traditional, court-driven model de-emphasizes parents’ (and children’s) long-term interests, fosters expensive legal fees, and lacks important services that can help families reorganize in a well-rounded way. But, in a recent article...