Divorce Mediation Services - The non-adversarial alternative.
During divorce, families need to resolve several core issues:
Changing their living arrangements from one home into two;deciding about the care of the children; arranging the family finances; and dividing the marital property.
Divorce mediation offers a non-adversarial alternative to the traditional legal approach. Mediation helps couples and families through the difficult transition of separating and divorcing to the rest of their lives.
In the past, divorcing couples could only turn to lawyers who routinely resolve issues in an adversarial manner. Families can become divided by battles about property, parenting, and support. The results can have long term, destructive consequences, especially if there are children involved.
The alternative is divorce mediation. Mediation provides a non-adversarial process in which the spouses resolve financial issues and agree upon a fair parenting plan for any children. The divorcing couple keeps control of this process - the divorce settlement will reflect their wishes, and not be ironed out through hostile conflict, but through honest dialogue.
The couple understands their family's needs far better than their lawyers, or a judge, should the divorce go to the most expensive route: litigation.
Mediation is efficient. The divorcing couple will resolve the issues in approximately eight to ten sessions that each last about an hour and a half.
During this process, Katherine Newcomer, JD will help the couple to negotiate a fair and equitable agreement. As the mediator, she neither takes sides, nor makes the couple's decisions for them. Rather, her job is to help the couple to examine options and their consequences.
In short, as a divorce mediator, Ms. Newcomer will assist the couple during this stressful time to be able to move forward in their lives. She helps the divorcing couple to shift their focus from the hurts of the past to the possibilities of the future. One of the questions she will ask them to consider: "Where would you like to see yourselves in five years?"
This viewpoint helps them to see the larger picture and to create a better atmosphere for problem solving. As in a traditional divorce, each spouse will need an attorney. However, in mediation, the lawyers act as advisers rather than adversarial negotiators. Early in the process, the divorcing couple is encouraged by Ms. Newcomer to seek legal advice about their rights and obligations.
Once the couple has negotiated their agreement, the mediator will write up their decisions in a memorandum of understanding (MOU.) The couple's respective attorneys will review this MOU. Once it has passed this process, one of the attorneys will draft the formal, binding settlement agreement.
The divorce will then proceed through the courts as uncontested - saving the divorcing couple a significant amount of money as well as emotional distress.
The manner in which a couple divorces will have a definite impact upon the rest of their lives. The goal of mediation is to help the spouses have a 'good' divorce: where the parties are able to cooperate about the children and develop a good parenting plan, find mutual economic justice, and in time, to find emotional closure - to get to that place of emotional indifference, where 'It's over.'
