Why Parties Choose Mediation

Voluntary

  • Participation is voluntary
  • Signing agreement is without outside coertion
  • Agreements are reached out of concern about what solutions lawyers or judges might impose as well as a simple meeting of the minds of the parties

Flexible

  • Allows more opportunity for creative solutions based upon the actual life experience and situation of the parties, that is, not confined to "standard solutions".
  • Can review all issues of importance to parties, even those which the court system may not consider as issues
  • Easier access to input from other resources, such as therapists, appraisers and accountants.

Private

  • Work is done in private
  • Conversations and materials may not be brought into later litigation by either party without the consent of the other
  • Mediator may not later be called as a witness

Informal

  • Agreements are worked out in plain language
  • Submitted to lawyers for approval before going to court
  • Future oriented
  • Focus is on solving those problems and answering those questions
    • that need to be resolved so parties can move on in life
  • Avoids assigning fault or blame to either party for developments leading up to mediation
  • Allows each party to proceed with post-divorce healing

Empowering

  • Keeps parties in control of their own destiny
  • Shows parties that they have the ability to reach mutually acceptable decisions
  • Allows parties to work for solutions without the fear of uncertainty that comes when the decision is submitted to an outsider
  • Allows parties to work at their own pace rather than in response to court-imposed deadlines (if mediation begins before filing).

Economical

  • Costs the same or lesııs than a litigated divorce
  • Requires and rewards hard work

Why Judges Recommend Divorce Mediation

  • Litigated divorces are moving targets; conflicted couples will raise issues for judicial consideration faster than the system can process those issues
  • Litigation's necessary focus on history feeds the already blazing emotional fires of a marriage breaking up, to the disadvantage of both the system and the litigants
  • The parties feel out of control anyway and the further loss of control which happens in litigation makes them even less able to compromise
  • There are few clear right or wrong (correct or incorrect) answers and therefore the tools of the law aren't so well suited to crafting resolutions