Mediation with a neutral attorney mediator is a low conflict lower cost way to get legal education, guidance, and drafting assistance. This will help you be certain you both make well-informed decisions and reach agreements that will last and be the best for your family.

The mediation steps:

1. Together, you choose to use mediation for your divorce or family law case and jointly choose a mediator. This usually begins with an initial phone call. The first call answers basic questions to determine if mediation is appropriate for you. It is important that the other spouse also has the same initial phone call to determine if they are willing to participate in mediation. If the parties are all willing to proceed with mediation, my office will schedule a joint meeting. This meeting costs $200 and will last for roughly an hour to an hour and a half. During that meeting, I can explain the divorce process and mediation specifically with both of you. During the meeting I will discuss that as an attorney mediator I am not the attorney for either of you. That I cannot represent either or both of you in the legal process. After we discuss the unique rules for mediation and how those apply to your case. We can discuss the anticipated cost of mediation at this time and if the parties want to proceed, my office will draft an agreement for mediation services. Once my office has been retained as the attorney mediator, my office will send each party certain documents to review, complete and return. At that point, my office will schedule one individual meeting with each of you. During this meeting you are free to discuss your questions, comments and concerns. While I cannot provide either party with legal advice this is a chance to answer questions and begin to think about possible solutions. After the individual meetings, my office will schedule a joint meeting. At that joint meeting we can begin the actual process to mediate your case to final resolution. From the joint meeting on, we must discuss how we want to proceed. I prefer to meet jointly in person, but I also understand that is not always possible or preferred. The goal, at all times, is to remain fair and respectful to each other. Going forward, to ensure fairness and transparency, I do not want to have individual telephone calls or emails with either party.

2. Mediation sessions can begin before, during or after starting your divorce or legal action. To start a divorce, this means filing a Petition for Divorce and a Confidential Petition Addendum.

3. The mediator will draft a Joint Petition for both of you to sign and file it with the court for you.

4. There is a 120-day waiting period; you cannot get divorced sooner.

5. You will participate in 2-5 mediation sessions to reach agreement on all legal issues. In divorce, the main issues are property division, maintenance, and if you have children, legal custody, physical placement, child support and variable expenses.

6. Before considering agreements, you will work with the mediator to exchange all financial information and prepare a court required Financial Disclosure Statement listing all income, expenses, assets and debts. Ideally, the parties and attorney mediator will exchange the financial information before or during the first joint meeting.

7. With the help of your mediator, you will consider options to reach agreements on all issues. This can happen in one joint meeting, or it could take many meetings. How many meetings are necessary is contingent on the needs of the parties and the complexity of the issues we are discussing. Remember, the attorney mediator cannot tell you what to do. The attorney mediator can facilitate your discussions to reach a conclusion and can provide information to assist you.

8. The mediator will draft a Marital Settlement Agreement addressing all legal issues for you to discuss, review, and finalize. The mediator will also draft additional documents, including the Judgment of Divorce and other documents necessary for your final hearing. The mediator will file the documents with the court.

9. You both attend the final hearing to obtain court approval of your agreement and receive your judgment of divorce.

10 Thereafter, any necessary implementation work occurs, such as changing titles of homes, vehicles, and transferring retirement funds. A mediator can provide advice on how to accomplish these housekeeping details.

Mediation is a positive way to resolve your divorce or any other family law issue. The two of you can openly share information, obtain education, and discuss issues and options with expert assistance while retaining control of the outcome for your family.