Mediation

Mediation is a voluntary, cooperative settlement process in which a neutral professional helps you make practical, informed decisions to resolve your differences.  With the guidance of a trained mediator, you work together through a series of orderly steps to create a fair and reasonable agreement.  The mediator helps you define the issues to be settled, gather and analyze the necessary information, and communicate effectively.

After evaluating your options, you – and only you – make the decisions that become an agreement.  The goal of a successful mediation is to reach an agreement that is custom-made for your family, your finances and your future.  At the conclusion of the mediation process you will have a full and complete Memorandum of Understanding ready to be reviewed and filed by the attorney of your choice.

Mediation can help you address countless issues.  With a mediator’s help, you can make decisions about such issues as living arrangements, parenting schedules, child support, spousal support, division of property and debt allocation.

The pros and cons of mediation can be summarized as follows:

Pros:

1. You can make your own decisions about the divorce agreement.
2. You can take as much time as needed to reach agreements.
3. Mediation is a personal, face-to-face process.
4. Mediation requires you to treat each other with respect and decency throughout.
5. Mediation teaches you conflict-resolution skills, enabling you to work out future problems together.

Cons:

1. You must deal directly with your spouse and you must come with the spirit of cooperation and compromise.
2. If your marriage has a “domineering spouse” problem, the mediator may not spot it and, even if they do, might not be able to control it in any event.
3. The mediation process does not generally provide a legally enforceable “power” in either spouse to command the other’s presence.  This means that the mediation could continue for a long time and leave you nowhere should your spouse, at some point, decide not to continue.
4. There is some possibility that the mediator may have a conscious or unconscious bias in favor of either you or your spouse. 

Contact us in our Worcester office for help with mediation