A growing number of people are representing themselves in divorce and child custody cases.
Often these matters cannot be resolved between the parties. In these situations, I offer mediation services to help people resolve these issues and allow them to finalize their cases.
WHY MEDIATION IS NECESSARY
As a skilled mediator I help the parties sort through decision making for their children, possession and access to the children, child support, medical and dental support for the children, communication between the parties, communication with the children, and division of property and debts. As a family law attorney, I am very familiar with what is needed to finalize a divorce or child custody case and use that knowledge in mediation.
Even in divorce cases where there are no children, property and debt division are still needed. During mediation the parties work through the division of their property to reach agreements.
Participating in mediation significantly reduces the costs of hiring an attorney to represent the parties. Retainers for attorneys typically start at $5,000.00 and can easily rise about $50,000.00. My mediation rates are far below that. You can see my mediation rates here.
Sometimes it is necessary for the parties to hire an attorney to draft their paperwork due to the complexities involved. In these cases, I provide the parties with names of attorneys I work with that provide substantial cost savings in these cases.
If you want to read more about how mediation works, here are a few links to blog posts I have written: