Divorce Mediation, what are The Advantages?
Divorce mediation has many advantages that might be helpful to your family, regardless of the legal matters involved with your situation. Finding common ground rather than fighting each other utilizing divorce mediation allows you and your spouse to create effective resolutions for your family’s future. Divorce mediation is a proven effective alternative to the traditional means of resolving family law issues with the courts.
Mediation helps couples resolve even the most stubborn disputes and is an especially complementary tool for the needs of people facing family law issues. Generally, time and financial savings are both huge advantages. Instead of using the traditional divorce litigation method through the court system, which can be upwards of eighteen months or more until a divorce settlement is reached, divorce mediation is completely up to the couple regarding the length of time it takes to reach a settlement that both parties can be satisfied with.
Typical mediations are scheduled in two-hour sessions, and some mediations are even resolved in a single session. Even if your mediation does take several sessions to reach an agreement, you have still saved a significant amount in attorney’s fees, as well as untold emotional stress on yourself and your children. Regarding cost savings, the average cost of a contested divorce ranges into the thousands of dollars per spouse, whereas mediation costs are substantially less. If spouses are able and willing to try to work together (and though it can be challenging, most couples can when assisted by a good mediator), divorce mediation can save them money in comparison to a traditional contested divorce.
There are many reasons for using divorce mediation including the time and savings benefit – but other advantages include:
- Keeping the ultimate decision-making power in your hands rather than ceding that power to a judge
- Reducing stress for you and your spouse
- In cases with children, it can help develop a paradigm of cooperation or peaceful dispute resolution that will be beneficial as the child is being raised
- Protecting children from unnecessary stress
As a practicing attorney for more than 40 years, I know divorce is hard no matter the conditions surrounding it. I have, however, seen the good that can come from the divorce mediation process and have the experience necessary as a mediator to help you and your family work through the challenges that stand between you.
If you are in the Kansas City Metro area (both sides of the state line) and believe divorce mediation is the best path forward for your family, please contact me, Hugh O’Donnell, to schedule a consultation. Feel free to call me at (816) 533-5152 with any questions you have about the mediation process as well.