During the Covid pandemic, with many courts closed, divorce mediation and arbitration rates soared by about 20% across the country.
Mediation is neither a high-stakes couple’s therapy program nor divorce litigation lite. Getting the most out of mediation may require shifting your attitude and expectations regarding your divorce process and outcome.
Many couples decide to get a divorce because they are angry at each other, whether due to infidelity, neglected household chores, pesky family member interferences, or incompatible personalities. Some issues are so fraught with animosity that it is hard to imagine solving them outside court. Couples who retain an ability to communicate without constantly lurching into irascibility and rancor stand a good chance of achieving a better settlement for both sides than they would likely have gotten either by staying married or going through the lengthy and costly litigation process and ending up at a trial.
When you enter the mediation setting, your best approach is to forget about the past and focus on the future. Your marriage is now over, likely by mutual consent, so there is no point in rehashing old fights about who should have cleaned the toilet on Saturday afternoons.
As uncomfortable as you may be with the process of striking financial deals with your soon-to-be ex-spouse, you should always bear in mind that a failure to reach agreement in mediation means the dreaded recourse to court, with all that entails includingthousands of pages of discovery records, intrusive depositions, financial colonoscopies and dirty laundry hung out in a public setting at hearings and trial.
Unlike a public trial in court, a divorce mediation session held under auspices of a legal firm is 100% private and confidential. A lawyer who leaks confidential information about the details of your divorce to a reporter or anyone else is committing an ethical violation that could even be sanctioned by the loss of his/her license to practice law.
At Hirsch Legal LLC, our client intake process includes evaluation of what legal forum would likely work best for you. Werecommend mediation in cases where it is likely to be an effective method of reaching a fair settlement. Our principal attorney, Carmina K. Hirsch, Esq. has considerable experience in both mediating cases and litigating them, which gives her insightinto the pluses and minuses of mediation outcomes versus divorce trials. Whichever way you choose to go, she will strive to make it work to your advantage.
If you are seeking a divorce in New Haven or Fairfield County (Bridgeport, Westport, Danbury, Stamford), call us today to set up an appointment to review your case.