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Free Divorce Workshop

This year, in accord with my resolution to live more mindfully, I am offering the Second Saturday Divorce Workshop for FREE as a contribution to the community. If you know someone who is going through a divorce, thinking about divorce or is faced with other family law issues, please pass this invitation on. If you are experiencing a family law crisis yourself, I invite you to join us this Saturday, January 14, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at my office in Woodland Hills for a roundtable discussion providing information and guidance. Learn about the 7 options for divorce, how to communicate with your ex effectively to achieve goals that are consistent with your interests, and how to restructure your family in a healthy and positive way.

As a California Bar Certified Family Law Specialist, one of my goals is to help clients achieve a successful divorce. It may seem like the words “successful” and “divorce” contradict themselves, but they do not. Experience and academic studies have helped us identify the basic elements of a successful divorce. “Successful,” as used here, means to complete the process of emotional separation, establish a new center of balance as a single person, maintain the welfare of your children, and develop healthy attitudes toward yourself, your ex-spouse, and your past marriage.

As in life itself, absence of conflict is not part of a successful divorce. A degree of anger and conflict is natural, useful, and constructive. It helps break the bonds of attachment and old patterns in the relationship, stimulates reflection, and enables change. (Excessive and destructive conflict, however, requires special treatment – usually the intervention of divorce coaches).

I ask clients to try to view their “ex” as a problem-solving partner. It is helpful to consider the ‘ex’ as someone who can actively and constructively participate in resolving the issues created by the separation. The closer the parties come to mutuality and balance, the healthier it will be for them and their family.

If you would like to attend this Saturday’s free family law workshop, please RSVP by calling toll free (888) 852-9961, or reply to this email. To view other upcoming free events at The Law Collaborative, please visit www.thelawcollaborative.com/events.htm. I encourage you to forward this invitation to your friends, family, and colleagues.

Best wishes for a healthy and happy New Year,

Ron Supancic, CFLS
The Law Collaborative, APC
21051 Warner Center Lane, Suite 100
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
T: (818) 348-6700
F: (818) 348-0961
www.thelawcollaborative.com/

Love Yourself

Happy Holidays to all of you, and the warmest Greetings for the coming year.

This holiday season we are making an effort to live mindfully. At the suggestion of one of the staff at The Law Collaborative, we have jointly decided that the funds normally spent on holiday cards, gifts to each other, and a Holiday meal at a restaurant, would be better spent in a more creative and mindful manner. We have collaboratively chosen to donate the funds to a family that we are sponsoring through a local organization.

Birth is involuntary. Death is inevitable. That is the cycle of life. It begins with a single inhalation. It ends with a single exhalation. In between, we take a finite number of breaths; the single most important activity in life. Each breath we breathe can be an invitation to live more fully, more consciously, and more attentively.

Mindfulness is conscious attention to each moment that we live. It’s not easy but when we succeed, we find it’s worth the effort. Mindfulness is at the heart of appreciation, gratitude, respect, and love. When we embrace appreciation, express gratitude, and show respect, we experience love in wonderful ways; love of nature, love of beauty, and love of humankind, including ourselves.

In loving awareness, love for self is able to well up, fill us, and spill over to refresh and irrigate others. How strange that Self-love becomes the heart of our love for others. Love for others is the prescription for the redemption of the ills of the world. Until we learn this essential lesson, we will continue to experience hostility, unhappiness, and war.

That is why this holiday we are making an effort to live mindfully. You are helping us to make this possible. Thank you for your support in 2011, and your continued support in 2012.

Wishing you Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year,

Ron Supancic, CFLS
The Law Collaborative, APC
21051 Warner Center Lane, Suite 100
Woodland Hills, CA 91303
T: (818) 348-6700
F: (818) 348-0961
Toll free: (888) 852-9961
www.thelawcollaborative.com/


The New Divorce “Fad”

Collaborative Divorce helps people worldwide

For those who think Collaborative Divorce is just a fad, you should read this article from Open.Salon.com.

Collaborative Divorce is not a fad. It’s a new way to help couples separate while keeping their family intact – and all over the world, it’s working for the common good.

Happy Halloween!

photo by DACshots via PhotoRee


A very happy (and safe!) Halloween from all of us at The Law Collaborative.

Pssst… Have you checked out our events page lately? Second Saturday Divorce Workshop is Nov. 12 and From Dating Through Divorce, a seminar with information that everyone with a family needs to know, is Nov. 15. Sign up now by calling us toll free at (888) 852-9961 or by visiting www.thelawcollaborative.com/events.htm.

A Gift from The Law Collaborative

photo by only alice via PhotoRee

We have a Special Limited Time Offer ($500 Value) for current clients in good standing.

The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was designed to make health insurance portable for employees, but it also imposed strict rules for the release of private medical information.

Healthcare providers, in efforts to comply with HIPAA, regularly refuse to provide family members with critical information about the medical conditions of their loved ones. The problem is, once disabled, a person may no longer be able to grant the necessary authorization. Abusive and neglectful caregivers have been known to hide behind these rules, while loved ones are denied recourse.

To help protect our clients, The Law Collaborative is offering to prepare and provide current clients in good-standing with a complimentary Advanced Health Care Directive, Living Will, Healthcare Power of Attorney, and HIPAA Authorization. Clients will also receive a wallet card and a complimentary one-year enrollment in a service that stores these important legal documents so that they can be accessed by medical professionals anywhere in the world in case of emergency. The wallet card also lists allergies, medical conditions, and provides a toll-free number for access to these critical documents.

We care about our clients and we want them to be protected when they need it most. To take advantage of this limited time offer or for further information on how you can control your property while you’re alive, care for yourself and your loved ones if you become disabled, and give what you have to whom you want, the way you want, when you want, call us toll free at (888) 852-9961 and ask about our HIPAA offer and free estate planning consultation.

Your legacy matters – take control of it now.

*This is a limited time offer to clients with current billing accounts and may be subject to change or revocation at any time without notice.

Best wishes,
Ronald Supancic, CFLS and Robert Borsky, Esq.
Partners at The Law Collaborative, LLC

From Dating Through Divorce

Save the Date for From Dating Through Divorce, an interactive presentation by attorney Ty Supancic of The Law Collaborative. Anyone contemplating marriage, children, or divorce, and those seeking a general overview of how the law relates to families, are invited to attend. Licensed attorneys who attend will earn 1 MCLE Credit. For more information or to register today, please call us toll free at (888) 852-9961 or visit www.thelawcollaborative.com/events.htm.

Divorce by Texting?

photo by DavidErickson via PhotoRee

According to Time Magazine’s Hillary Brenhouse, it is no longer permissible in Tajikistan to divorce your wife by sending her a text message. In some traditions of Sunni Islam a divorce can be granted by uttering the “triple talaq,” which simply means the husband repeats the words: “I divorce you” three times. Apparently, Tajik men working abroad found that texting the  triple talaq was just as effective, and much more convenient.

However, the sense that that this shortcut was just a bit too easy has been growing. Abdurakhim Kholikov, the head of the state religious affairs committee, issued a statement that delivering the coup de grace to a marriage by SMS was a breach of Islamic law, and plans to outlaw it entirely. In a nation where most marriages do not appear in the official records anyway, the talaq was a mere formality.

In other nations the triple talaq must usually be accompanied by arbitration and reconciliation. The practice had already been regulated or banned in Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria, Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Of course, in the US, divorce has never been so simple – or so arbitrary.

Read the article here.

$25 Divorce Workshop at The Law Collaborative

After much consideration, we have decided to try a new approach to the Second Saturday Divorce Workshop. We’re still offering tools, strategies, and information from three top divorce professionals, but the program is more compact and more affordable.

Join us Saturday, October 8, 2011 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at our office in Woodland Hills for a comprehensive workshop about the divorce process. Robert Borsky, Esquire, of The Law Collaborative will speak about the legal divorce, Pete Collins, Certified Divorce Financial Analyst, will discuss important financial and tax issues that most people don’t know about, and James E. Walton, PhD will cover emotional agendas, how to help the kids, and how to deal with your ex. Breakfast is included.

The new rate for our two-hour Second Saturday Divorce Workshop is $25 in advance, $35 at the door. For more information or to register online now please visit www.thelawcollaborative.com/secondsaturday.htm or call us toll free at (888) 852-9961.

How To Have A Better Divorce

Here are some tips and suggestions to help make the process of divorce a little bit easier. If you follow these suggestions, you will save yourself a lot of potential frustration down the road.

1. Always take your file with you everywhere.

2. Keep a journal. Write down every significant event, conversation, discussion and action of your spouse at the time it occurs.

3. Keep a ledger. Write down every financial aspect of your case to assure a complete, accurate, and legible record of all the financial aspects of your case.

4. Memorialize every agreement with every person who is interested/involved in your case. Keep/send copies.

5. Meet with your attorney in person to design strategies for your case. Explore consensual dispute resolution; confirm everything in writing.

6. Know your strategy; do not deviate without advice and counsel.

7. Participate in the preparation of your case; draft, document, investigate, gather information and pre-interview all witnesses.

8. Let your attorney know when s/he is on track or off.

9. Schedule regular spit and grouse sessions with your attorney. DO NOT let resentments accumulate.

10. Keep your account current at all times and offer security if you fall behind.

Prepare Yourself

Prepare Yourself for Divorce by Knowing Your Budget and Your Home’s Equity
By Randy Morrow, Certified Real Estate Divorce Specialist

You have filed for divorce and told your attorney “I want everything I can get from her/him.” Really? Do you think it is that easy?

What happens to you if ‘everything’ isn’t enough? How are you going to live? Do you have a job that pays enough to support you and/or the kids? Do you even have a job? Have you given any of this the least bit of thought? Tough questions, but questions you must answer.

My suggestion:  Sit down and start making a list of absolutes. Absolutes are monthly expenses absolutely necessary to survive, with no frills. I suggest having a trusted friend or professional help you make this list. (Remember, you probably aren’t thinking as clearly as you would like to right now.)

Read more…