If you’re considering a divorce, you may want to consider the advantages of mediation. Many people don’t know that a divorce can actually be completed without having to go to court. This can potentially save thousands of dollars in legal fees. However, there’s a more practical advantage of using mediation.
When you go to court, you’re placing one of the biggest legal issues of your life, and the resulting decisions in the hands of your attorney and a judge. However, in mediation, you get to make the decisions.
Many people fail to realize that you have the maximum amount of influence and control when you’re engaged in mediation. Yes, you have to reach agreements on various issues with someone you probably can’t stand at this moment. But, when you break it down and address the issues, not the emotions, you might find that you can structure a better outcome in this setting than you might receive at the end of a court battle.
Which Divorce Issues Can Be Mediated?
Actually, practically everything. Once you’ve reached an agreement on some, or all, of the issues, the mediator and the attorneys will submit the agreed upon settlement to the judge who will review it. There may be points requiring further clarification, but between the attorneys and mediator, those are usually handled fairly easily.
You can successfully mediate:
- Property division
- Finances (including bank account balances and debts)
- Child custody
- Child support
- Issues related to spousal support or maintenance
- And many other issues
It’s possible that you may not be able to reach an agreement on every single issue. Among the advantages of mediation is that you can address the areas in which you can find some level of agreement and then have the attorneys argue the various remaining issues in court.
There’s really no perfect formula. Nonetheless, you don’t have to give up control in the decision-making process. The more you can negotiate outside of the courtroom, the more impact you can have on the outcome of the overall agreement.
Regardless of how heated the situation appears to be, it’s important to consider the long-term. The anger and pain should decrease, over time. Don’t get stuck with bad situation because you let the emotions dominate your thinking. There are many advantages of mediation. This might be the perfect time to leverage them.