Table of Contents
What You Need to Know
Mediation Lands on Common Ground
If you and your soon-to-be-ex share a common goal to bring a fair and balanced perspective to the divorcing process, mediation can be a perfect route to take. Amanda DuBois and Lucia Levias are trained mediators available to provide mediation services for all kinds of family matters.
We listen to your concerns, prioritize your goals, and explore creative ways to jointly resolve your disputes. Negotiate both temporary and permanent financial and child custody aspects of family law matters with our skilled mediators.
Choice > Commands
Mediation can afford you the luxury of more creative problem-solving and better shared outcomes that go far beyond the rigid confines of the court. Mediated agreements tend to be more “durable” because they’re entered into by choice, not imposed upon each person by a judge. As a result, successful mediations tend to decrease returns to court in future years.
Better for Kids
Divorce mediation can be an incredible tool for parents with complicated work schedules or children with unique needs. Judges have busy calendars, and the court is quite limited in the types of residential schedules and solutions it generally orders. For a custom-fit parenting plan—possible the single most import document defining your child’s future—make it together. You know best what your kids need.
WHAT ISSUES CAN BE MEDIATED?
Temporary Orders.
Decisions often need to be made for the time period when a divorce is filed, and the final divorce is entered. Who will live where? What will the kids’ schedule be with each parent? Who pays what bills? Some people will figure all this out on their own, others head directly to court. But one good solution people often overlook is to attend a mediation where these thorny issues can be sorted out. Our mediators have years of experience helping clients work through financial and parenting issues to carry them through the months before their final agreement can be reached.
Parenting Plan Disputes.
Most parenting plans require parties to attend dispute resolution when they have a disagreement about parenting issues, or how to interpret fuzzy language in their parenting plan. A common dispute involves which school a child will attend. Or perhaps a child has grown up since the plan was entered into and their interests have changed in a way not anticipated by the plan. Our mediators have developed 100s (maybe 1000s) of parenting plans and will work with parties to find creative solutions to disagreements about their parenting plans.
Final Divorce Settlements.
To settle a divorce, the parties must juggle many life-changing issues, often in a one-day mediation.
Creative, Balanced POV from Experienced Mediators.
Weigh these two options: Leave precious decisions up to a stranger (however wise) who hears a couple days of testimony and makes a cookie-cutter plan for your future financial security and your kids. Or create your own roadmap that fits you and your life like a puzzle piece. Creative and focused on fairness, our trained family law attorneys are here to help.
Our Experience
Legalese Defined: MED/ARB
This strange sounding abbreviation is actually a two-step dispute resolution process that combines mediation and arbitration. Initially, two parties will try to reach a settlement through mediation. If unsuccessful, they’ve mutually agreed to empower their mediator to step into the shoes of an arbitrator to make a final decision.
FAQ
Is mediation the same thing as arbitration?
No. Even though they’re both out-of-court ways to solve problems, the two are not the same. In mediation, a trained mediator facilitates a divorce settlement between parties. These parties compromise and make decisions themselves. The mediator moves the process forward by listening to both sides of the story and helping them see common ground. In arbitration, a designated arbitrator acts sort of like a judge. The parties give evidence, and the arbitrator makes the final decision.
So does mediation mean everyone is super happy with the outcome?
Honestly, sometimes the best resolutions in mediation are the ones where nobody’s particularly happy with the outcome. Both people have compromised, probably a little more than they originally wanted to. At the same time, they’re both content overall (so long as no one felt pressured into immediately signing a binding contract). In many ways, mediation is almost always better than letting a judge make a rushed determination that’s so important to the family.
Are all mediators the same?
Different mediators undergo different types of training. Some mediators are not lawyers, they’re individuals who have taken mediation training to help people work through the process to find resolution. Mental health therapists with mediation training can make a good choice if you have parenting plan concerns. Lawyers also trained as mediators, like you’ll find at DuBois Levias, are great choices because they combine their experience in the courtroom with their mediation skills to help you reach resolution. When selecting a lawyer-mediator, it’s a good idea to choose someone who regularly appears in court, so they can provide recent courtroom experience to help parties weigh the risk of going to court. Judges also trained as mediators can offer lots of decision-making experience. The complexity of divorce will drive the kind of mediation you seek.
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