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Can Your Divorce Be Resolved Through Mediation?
Many divorcing couples in Southern California are choosing an alternative divorce process – mediation – that takes place away from the courtroom. If you choose mediation, you will need to be advised by an Orange County divorce lawyer who has considerable mediation experience.
Spouses are no longer required to have “grounds” for divorce. In fact, no-fault divorce is now the law in every state. The way that couples get divorced has also changed. Divorcing couples may avoid a courtroom trial – and may save considerable time and money – by turning to mediation.
When you consider the financial and emotional cost of a contested divorce trial, divorce mediation is a better option for many divorcing couples. In the divorce mediation process, divorcing spouses work with a neutral mediator to resolve any issues that are disputed.
What Should Divorcing Spouses Know About Divorce Mediation?
In divorce mediation, a neutral divorce mediator guides and directs the divorcing spouses toward agreements on matters that include the division of marital assets, spousal support, child custody, and child support, but mediators do not have the ability to impose agreements on the spouses.
A divorce mediator may be a family law or divorce attorney or a mental health professional. Mediation sessions may take place over a period of weeks or several months.
An Orange County divorce mediation attorney may advise the divorcing spouses and review or even help draft whatever agreements are reached in the mediation process.
When is Divorce Mediation Ordered by the Court?
Along with saving you considerable time and money, divorce mediation keeps your private business private. In a divorce trial, details about your children and finances become available to anyone who accesses public records. However, mediation keeps your family’s business private.
When a divorce in California involves a child custody dispute, the court will order mediation before the divorcing spouses take their dispute into the courtroom. Mediators urge parents to put the best interests of their children first and make compromises to resolve their parenting disputes.
When is Divorce Mediation Successful?
The divorce mediation process is most likely to be successful, diminish conflict between spouses, and reduce the cost of the divorce for both spouses when most or all of the following conditions apply:
- Both partners want a divorce: When both spouses agree the marriage is over and divorce is in their best interests, mediation may be the best path, but when only one spouse wants the divorce, the other spouse may resist moving forward with mediation.
- Reconciliation is not possible: When neither spouse is interested in reconciliation, mediation can probably be constructive. Mediation, however, is not about recrimination, blame, or the past. Instead, it’s about moving constructively and positively into the future.
- The spouses want to stay on good terms: The desire to stay on good terms isn’t essential to mediation, but it helps. However, when one or both spouses feel strong hostility and anger, counseling may be appropriate, but mediation probably is not the best option.
- Both spouses understand the finances: Finances are often a central issue in a divorce. If one spouse has handled the finances, the other may feel disadvantaged. For the fairest possible division of assets, both partners need to understand the financial realities.
- The partners are honest with one another: When trust is gone, one or both spouses may need a lawyer or a financial adviser to find a settlement alternative – other than mediation – that doesn’t depend on the other partner providing truthful financial information.
- The partners are not blaming each other: When both spouses can admit they share the blame for the failure of their marriage, mediation is probably the right choice. However, if one spouse believes the other is entirely at fault, mediation may be the wrong choice.
- Neither partner is intimidated by the other: In mediation, spouses negotiate their own divorce agreement. If one partner is intimidated by the other, that spouse may need to retain an aggressive divorce lawyer and choose a more conventional path to divorce.
- The divorcing partners can disagree without hostility: If one or both divorcing spouses cannot help expressing strong and hostile emotions, mediation probably is not the right option.
- Alcoholism, drug abuse, and violence are not issues: Drug and alcohol abuse impair the ability to think clearly and make rational decisions. Alcohol and drug dependency can lead to irrational behaviors and choices that may derail any attempt at divorce mediation.
- Each spouse trusts the other as a parent: Mediation may be the best way to reach agreements about a couple’s children. Mediation is more family-friendly than traditional paths to divorce, and mediation allows for a greater consideration of the children’s needs.
What Else Should You Know About Divorce Mediation?
Some divorce attorneys in Southern California continue to rely on litigation, but the trend in divorce law now is to protect a client’s best interests while simultaneously reducing the potential for conflict.
Mediation also allows the courts to focus more exclusively on cases where the spouses cannot resolve their disputes privately and require a divorce trial.
When you divorce in Southern California, whether your path to divorce is mediation or a conventional divorce trial, you must be advised and represented by an Orange County divorce lawyer who is sensitive to your concerns and routinely handles family law and divorce cases.
Divorcing? Take Your Case to the Law Office of Patrick O’Kennedy
When you and your partner opt for divorce mediation, an Orange County divorce mediation attorney – Patrick O’Kennedy – can handle everything on your behalf: filing the legal paperwork, negotiating your divorce settlement, and entering a final judgment with the court.
Attorney Patrick O’Kennedy also handles family law cases including contested divorces, child custody and child support disputes, the modification and enforcement of divorce-related court orders, and cases that involve restraining orders.
If you’re divorcing in or near Orange County, now or in the future, and you’re not sure whether divorce mediation is right for you, promptly schedule a legal consultation with the Law Office of Patrick O’Kennedy. Call 714-701-6356, and put attorney Patrick O’Kennedy to work for you.
