As evident from many opinions, marriages are made in heaven, but relationships are to be practiced right here. When a relationship like marriage does not work and goes the way of divorce, it hurts since the couple has failed to work the marriage. A divorce proceeding thus puts both your destinies in the hands of lawyers, who are in the least knowledgeable about your family, its workings, aspirations and goals. Although one of the couple always wins in the court of law, eventually both lose out and realize years later how bitter the loss was.

In the above scenario, instead of making divorce a public affair, divorce mediation may be a very good way out. Divorce mediation keeps out the concept of win or lose situations and tries to work towards a fair and legal settlement that is enforceable. Divorce mediation essentially keeps the costs down and saves time. A divorce mediation can be a great way to make your own divorce terms and use it as a platform to grow peacefully albeit separately.

Divorce mediation is a not a means to resolve conflicts like most other mediation procedures. Divorce mediation aims to facilitate the spouses to come to an agreement about their future under honest legal framework, thus creating a win-win situation for both. This ensures that the couple sees the older problems in new light and they start defining their new lives. Divorce mediation is a process where one cannot win at the others expense. No one loses, both the spouses win. The outcome of a mediation process should be acceptable to both otherwise, the mediation has not ended. This way of ending a divorce proceeding also empowers both spouses and gives them confidence to face the challenges of the new life ahead of them.

DIVORCE MEDIATION

The responsibility of a trained, neutral divorce mediator is to help divorcing couples work out an amicable settlement involving issues of assets, child support, parenting issues and spousal support. Despite being portrayed as a peaceful process, divorce mediation is for not only “friendly” interactions, but also sees, a lot of fighting due to emotional distress caused by the divorce. It is understandable that many couples go through internal conflicts resulting in the distress. A mediator tries to reason and bring them around to discuss the matter of most importance concerning their future, protecting and raising the children and avoiding extremely draining legal battles.

How it Works?

The process of mediation is non-confrontational and consists of a series of meetings that last about two hours each at the office of the mediator. During this process, the mediator helps to identify the key issues of the future and tries to set course for a conversational dialogue to resolve them and pave way for future planning of both spouses.

The mediator keeps both spouses fully informed and steers the dialogue towards financial issue in the next step. Couples are allowed to consult other experts in matters of taxation and appraisals to get the picture straight.

On reaching an amicable agreement, it is drafted as a legal document for both parties, which can then be reviewed by the respective attorneys, if requested. The agreement is then submitted to the court for review and forms the basis of the final divorce judgment.

However, the whole process of mediation is voluntary; there is no pressure whatsoever to settle the matter. Mediation ends only when both the parties come to an agreement comfortably, or if terminated by the parties mid-way. Mediation can also be used to settle only parts of the divorce like child custody or spousal support etc, leaving the rest to the attorneys.

Divorce mediation makes sure that the parties are in full control of the situation at all times and the resultant divorces have a greater chance of follow-through since the agreement was reached to their satisfaction and sense of fairness.