Why Mediation?

Mediation is a better way to get divorced. It was created to help people arrive at good agreements. The alternative, litigated divorce was created to help people have good trials. If divorces wound up being decided by judges, getting ready for trial would be a good idea. But 99% of divorces are settled, usually just before trial, with cookie cutter solutions that don’t work for lots of people. Mediation results in customized agreements that work for you.

How mediation takes the fight out of divorce.

In mediation, an experienced professional helps the couple keep things civil even when there is strong disagreement on important issues. Routinely, such disagreements involve the division of marital property, child support, child custody and parenting arrangements, and alimony. The result is a fair agreement and an uncontested divorce. When an agreement is fair, both parties can live up to it.

Mediation costs less, goes faster, works better, and lasts longer. It would be amazing if it didn’t. Mediation is about working out a settlement; that is what it is good at. Ordinary divorce is about a non-existent trial. So, ordinary divorce takes 1-3 years. Mediated divorce takes 3-8 months. Moreover, less than 4% of mediated divorces wind up back in litigation, compared with over 40% of traditional divorces.

Being angry does not prevent successful mediation.

Divorce mediators expect you to have strong feelings. Part of our job is to steer the conversation away from blame and tangents and toward objective problem solving. Mediators take no sides. Their sole concern is creating a settlement that takes the children into account and with which the adults can live.