What is Divorce Mediation?

What is Divorce Mediation?
DIVORCE MEDIATION - A Better Way
About Divorce:
There’s no escaping it -- divorce is an unhappy process for everyone involved, the divorcing couple, their children, their families. It is hard emotionally and it is hard financially.

Emotionally, the conflict that comes with divorce can wear on everyone involved, and everyone will probably go through a full range of unwelcome feelings, rage, anger, grief, sadness, depression. Divorce is, unavoidably, a loss for everyone involved

Financially, divorcing couples will be supporting two households with the same income that formerly supported only one. Financial loss and diminished lifestyles are practically unavoidable

Divorce mediation is a way, perhaps the best way, to minimize both the emotional and financial impact of divorce.

About Mediation:
Mediation is a process in which both parties agree to do their best to set aside past grievances and hurts in order to work out a mutually acceptable agreement that will become part of their divorce decree. Doing so mindfully and respectfully helps both parties to avoid getting bogged down in punishing the other person and to look out for their own interests in a clear-headed way.

Mediation has many advantages over negotiation through attorneys or going through a trial:

• You retain control over your divorce agreement rather than taking whatever a judge might impose or your attorneys may be able to negotiate.
• You avoid the emotional wear and tear of going back and forth with offers and counteroffers through your attorneys or, even worse, going through a trial before a judge.
• You save the cost of attorneys’ fees involved in negotiating an agreement or, again even worse, going through a trial.
• If you have children, you can lessen the emotional and financial impact on them while mediating a sound, supportive parenting plan.
• You can tailor your agreement to fit your specific financial and child-raising situation, in as much detail as necessary, instead of ending up with the broad-brush, one-size-fits-all approach of a negotiated agreement or court-imposed decree.
• You can arrange the mediation process to fit your schedule, and you can avoid the delays of crowded court dockets and the offer/counteroffer negotiation process.

Mediation, then, costs less -- less money, less time, less emotional wear and tear.