It is the rare case, if not the non-existent one, where divorcing couples agree on absolutely every issue.  Whether it is a disagreement about a parenting time schedule or a division of personal property, there is almost always some level of disagreement between the parties.   For purposes of completing the divorce, though, the real question is whether the disagreement is worth fighting over.  I recently had a case in which the parties could not agree on parenting time for their son over the Thanksgiving holiday.  The parties seemed to lose sight of the fact that their son was already 15 years old, and that there was only three more Thanksgivings to divide.  When viewed in this context, it hardly seemed worthwhile to pay lawyers to argue over three days.

The same type of analysis can present itself when dealing with financial issues.  Many times clients cannot agree on how to divide an income tax refund, for example.  If neither side is willing to give in, they will have to pay their lawyers to draft letters and perhaps even a court motion to resolve the issue.  By the time this happens, the clients could have paid more to their attorneys than the refund was even worth!  For this reason, I often counsel clients to engage in a cost-benefit analysis to determine how much it will cost to pursue an issue that remains disputed, and whether that cost is worth the potential benefit if successful.  When both parties understand the cost-benefit type of analysis, the chances of reaching a compromised settlement in a divorce increase greatly.