The Divorce Process and Mediation
If you are considering getting a divorce or if you have already started the divorce process, you may be wondering if you and your partner should go through mediation. Whether you and your spouse are still amicable or whether you fight through most parts of your lives, seeking out mediation may help you both to come to a friendly—or at least not hostile—end to your marriage. Especially if there are children involved, mediation can help ensure that their best interests are at the heart of your divorce.
What does it mean to go through the mediation process?
When two people are going through a divorce, they may simply fight or bicker at one another. This does not promise to end well and it may just be the married couple talking at each other instead of trying to sort through their problems. Attorneys, while great assets, cannot serve as a neutral third party since they are there to protect their clients. Thus, a mediator can sit down with both couples (and their attorneys) and answer questions, direct the conversation, and allow both parties to talk through problems that may come up in the divorce.
What is mediation most often used for?
Even if you think that you and your spouse are fairly good at communicating and that the divorce will not be ugly, there are still issues that could come up that may be difficult for you and your partner to talk about. Problems that could arise could be:
- Child support
- Alimony
- Child custody and visitation rights/schedules
- Who gets what in the divorce
Especially with children, it may not always be so easy to determine who gets custody and who would get visitation rights. Often, a judge is left to decide what will be in the best interests of the children involved. However, it may make the divorcing couple happier if they are able to come to a decision on their own.
Determining if Mediation is the Right Route to Go
Mediation may not always be the answer. However, if you and your spouse are mostly amicable, you can agree on the custody decisions, and no one is hiding information regarding their finances/assets, then mediation is likely a good road to go down. Mediation cannot work if both couples refuse to meet somewhere in the middle.
Attorneys, like Rockville, Maryland divorce lawyers from The Law Office of Daniel J. Wright know that divorce can be difficult. However, working with a local attorney and a mediator can help you with this process.