Divorce firm offers clients another option
By Laura Severs
A new Alberta company is setting its sights on becoming a one-stop divorce source for couples looking to end their marriages.
Though based in Calgary, Fairway Divorce Solutions Inc. has extensive expansion plans in the works and is looking at the United States and Australia for future offices, in addition to more Canadian locations - including a Vancouver operation scheduled to open in November.
"Divorce is not a bad word," says Karen Miles, the company's founder, president and CEO, who devised a 120-day service that costs, on average, between $6,000 and $25,000 - a bill that is equally split between the divorcing couple.
Lawyers are only brought into the picture after the pair has agreed on a complete settlement. They then draft the documents and file the necessary court papers.
Divorce-planning specialists negotiate resolutions on all issues of divorce, including finances and child custody and support, to reach what Miles calls a "win-win situation" that enables both parties to better transition to their new lives.
"It is a step-by-step negotiation, an independently negotiated resolution," says Miles, who says she knows of no other company that offers the same service. "I actually am a trained mediator, and I do use some of the mediation tools.
"But we're a negotiating platform. We empower decision makers by moving them through a process, with their finances, through the distribution of assets and then we move to parenting and the children."
Once an agreement is reached, a comprehensive resolution plan is drawn up, including the reasons for the various decisions.
"We get a lot of people well into the legal system who have already incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars (in costs)," says Miles.
It was after a long, drawn-out divorce of her own that Miles - a financial planner, who also has Certified Divorce Financial Analyst accreditation from The Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts in Michigan - seriously looked at setting up a divorce alternative.
Formerly married for seven years, Miles says she faced an unexpected divorce that was far from easy.
"I went through a four-year ordeal. The lawyers said there is no such thing as a win-win, it's not who will lose, it's who will lose more. Justice and fairness are not the same thing, is what I heard from my lawyers," she says. "To put it bluntly, it was a Gong Show and my legal bills were in excess of $500,000."
With her divorce behind her, she decided there had to be a better way. In 2005, Miles started to research divorce in North America and found that it is a massive industry.
"It really has never been defined as such. It's been managed by the legal system. Nobody really had ventured out there and said, 'It's time to establish an alternative to divorce,' " says Miles.
With more than 46 per cent of Canadian marriages ending in divorce and costs that can eat up a significant portion of a client's assets, Miles decided it was time to move ahead with her business plan.
But while Miles promises that Fairway, which has nine employees, will save its clients time, money and even protect their children from unnecessary conflict, there is concern from the legal profession.
"The Matrimonial Property Act (in Alberta) sets out specific rules to the division of property and the court has interpreted those rules, and when you apply those rules you could wind up with a division of property that is different than the individual thinks," says Gillian Marriott, a partner in the Calgary-based legal firm of Dunphy Best Blocksom LLP. "Clients come into our office and say, 'This is what we agreed upon,' and I tell them what the law says and they say, 'We didn't realize that.' " Marriott, also a secretary of the Canadian Bar Association's Alberta Branch, adds: "if after I give you the legal advice, you decide you want to do it your way, that's fine. But you have to understand what you're entitled to before you give it up."
Marriott notes her firm also settles most of its cases.
"I have 10 lawyers in this office exclusively practising family law and we settle 95 per cent of the cases. It's rare for us to go to court," says Marriott. "The people who are inclined to an agreement will be inclined with the lawyers as well.
"I've done it in a week with people who are highly motivated and want it over. If you can move something that quickly with highly motivated people, your fees are going to be less and it can be as quick as everybody's time and schedules allow."
