The Cooperative Divorce Process Explained

Cooperative Family Law is the name A&M Law gives to its out-of-court process for divorce and parenting plans. In it, one neutral law firm works with both spouses together. The firm represents the process rather than either spouse, helps the two of you reach your own agreement, and then drafts and files it. This page describes how the process is set up and where it sits among the other ways to divorce covered in our Montana Divorce Guide. It describes the firm's own service, not a procedure created by Montana statute.

What Cooperative Family Law Is

The firm's definition is this: Cooperative Family Law is an amicable, out-of-court approach to divorce and parenting plans in which one neutral law firm works with both spouses together, representing the process rather than either side, to reach an agreement and get it drafted and filed properly.

Three features follow from that definition. There is one firm, not two opposing ones. The two of you meet with the firm together. And the decisions about your children, your property, and your future stay with you. The firm guides the process and does not decide the outcome.

The Firm Is a Neutral for Both of You

This is the feature people most often misunderstand, so it is worth stating plainly. In the cooperative process A&M Law does not represent either spouse individually. It does not take a side, and it does not give one-on-one advice to one of you. Its guidance about the law is mutual and is given to both of you in the same meeting.

That is different from sharing a lawyer. Montana's ethics rules on conflicts of interest are the reason one lawyer generally cannot act as the advocate for both spouses in a dissolution. A neutral role is a different role. Our guide on whether you can use one lawyer explains the distinction.

Because the firm is not your individual advocate, each spouse remains free to consult their own lawyer at any time, whether to ask a private question, to have a draft agreement reviewed, or for any other reason. Nothing in the process prevents that.

How the Process Runs

The firm's step-by-step page describes the process in full. In outline:

1. A first conversation. The firm learns about your family, finances, and goals and tells you whether the cooperative approach is a good fit. Not every case is.
2. A participation agreement. Both spouses sign a written agreement to the same ground rules: honest and complete disclosure of finances, respectful communication, and a good-faith effort to resolve issues without litigation.
3. Financial disclosure. You exchange complete information about income, assets, debts, and expenses. Where a value is hard to pin down, such as a business, a retirement account, or real property, the firm can bring in neutral professionals both of you trust.
4. Meetings together. In a series of focused sessions the two of you work through the questions with the firm guiding: how to divide property and debt, a parenting schedule, child support, and any maintenance.
5. A parenting plan, if you have children. The plan is built to keep conflict away from the children.
6. The written agreement and the court filing. Once you agree, the firm puts the terms into the documents Montana requires and submits them to the court for the final decree of dissolution.

Misty Gaubatz holds a Certificate in Mediation and has served as a guardian ad litem.

What the Court Still Requires

The cooperative process changes how you reach an agreement. It does not change what Montana law requires of every dissolution.

• A petition must be filed and a district court must enter the decree. Either or both spouses may start the case (MCA § 40-4-105(2)).
• The written agreement is a separation agreement under MCA § 40-4-201. The court reviews its property and maintenance terms and may reject them if it finds them unconscionable.
• Parenting and child support terms do not bind the court. Child support must be calculated under the guidelines even when parents agree on an amount (MCA § 40-4-204(3)(a)).
• Financial disclosure is a legal duty, not only a ground rule of the process. Each spouse serves a final declaration of disclosure under penalty of perjury before or at the time of an agreement on property or support (MCA § 40-4-253(1)(a)(i)).

Our guides to the separation agreement and to agreeing on everything before you file cover these requirements in detail.

How It Compares With Mediation and Two Lawyers

Mediation is defined by Montana statute as a process in which an impartial third person helps the parties resolve their differences and has no authority to compel a result (MCA § 26-1-813(1)). The cooperative process shares that neutrality and the rule that the spouses decide. What the firm adds, as it describes the process, is joint guidance on the law and the drafting and filing of the documents. The firm's page on the cooperative process and mediation compares the two, and our mediation guide covers the statutes.

When It Is Not the Right Fit

A process built on meeting together and disclosing voluntarily is not suited to every marriage. It is a poor fit where one spouse is afraid of the other, where there has been abuse or coercion, or where one spouse will not provide honest financial information. In those situations the protections of a court case, and a lawyer who represents you alone, matter more than an amicable setting. Our guide on when agreement is not safe or possible explains the alternatives.

If you are in danger, call 911. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233.

A&M Law also represents individual clients in traditional divorce cases, so the first conversation can be about which approach fits, not only about this one.

This page describes A&M Law's Cooperative Family Law process and explains Montana law in general as of the 2025 Montana Code Annotated. It is not legal advice about your specific case.