Why You Don’t Have To Fear Divorce Mediation — Ii
Last time, our blog started discussing how many divorcing couples may find themselves sitting not across a courtroom aisle from one another, but rather across a table from one another thanks to court-ordered mediation.
To recap, divorce mediation consists of spouses and their attorneys sitting down to reach mutually acceptable solutions outside of the courtroom via a series of sessions overseen by a certified mediator.
In today’s post, we’ll continue examining divorce mediation as a means of providing divorcing couples — both those who have been ordered to undertake the process and those who are considering it independently — with the necessary information.
One question that people naturally have concerning divorce mediation is the types of issues that can be addressed during the sessions. In other words, they wonder whether there are certain matters that can only be resolved by the court.
The simple truth is that all divorce matters can be addressed and resolved in the mediation sessions, including:
- Alimony: The spouses can determine whether one spouse will seek rehabilitative alimony for a set duration, lump sum alimony or perhaps even permanent alimony.\
- Property division: The spouses can determine what constitutes marital property and, once this is accomplished, decide how to divide this marital property in a fair and equitable manner. They can also follow the same process as it relates to the division of debt.
- Child custody: The spouses can decide whether they will go the route of shared parenting, or an arrangement whereby one parent has primary physical custody and the other has a visitation schedule. They can also reach agreements concerning legal custody, meaning authority to make decisions relating to things like education, health care, etc.
- Child support: The spouses can decide how much one parent will pay in monthly child support, and set expectations for things like medical and dental insurance, future education costs, etc.
We’ll conclude our overview of divorce mediation in the post, examining why exactly divorce mediation can prove to be so advantageous to so many couples.