Divorce Expo Explores Options When Going Through Painful Experience

NOVI (WWJ) - Half of all marriages today end in divorce, and for people going through that process, there's a divorce expo Sunday in Novi.

There are seminars and legal and financial experts to help those going through a divorce.

"I've been kind of in limbo and I use this seminar as a vehicle to jump-start my life. I've been doing okay on my own, but I wanted to move things forward completely," said one man going through the divorce process to WWJ's Beth Fisher. "End the old, and get on with the new."

This woman is just starting divorce proceedings and wants legal advice.

"Alimony, my husband hasn't worked in a while so I was just concerned about whether or not that would be something he would be able to get," said one woman at the expo.

While she doesn't have children, she says it's a scary thing losing the life she had before.

People attending the expo could also learn about collaborative divorce.

"The parties sign an agreement that they are not going to litigate, it's a process through which the parties are assisted by the attorneys and health professionals and the financial people to make their own decisions, not to litigate, not to go to court, not to allow the judge to make those decisions," said Judith Margerum, who is a coach and psychologist with Collaborative Practice Institute of Michigan.

Margerum says that a lot of people don't realize that they can have more control in the divorce process.

She advises anyone going through a divorce to get some counseling.

The expo is on Sunday through 7 p.m. at Novi Middle School and costs $45 dollars at the door.