Ellicott City Mediation Lawyer
Mediation offers a different pathway to dissolving a marriage than you may be familiar with. Instead of combating with your spouse in court, mediation works by compromising, communicating, and working together to find mutually beneficial resolutions regarding asset distribution, child custody, child support, and alimony. Our Ellicott City mediation lawyers at Weinberg & Schwartz, L.L.C. have a vast degree of experience helping clients reach desirable solutions by negotiating with the other side during mediation, and we are confident that we can provide you with the results you are looking for.
What is Mediation and How Does it Work?
Mediation is a conflict resolution process that is often used before legal disputes are taken to court. For divorce and other family matters, going to court to try their case before a judge is often unnecessary, as mediation can resolve all family law matters, ranging from child custody and support, to division of assets and alimony. In fact, 94 percent of couples who divorce collaboratively through mediation successfully dissolve their marriage mediation, and do not have to go to court, according to the IACP. Mediation is a highly structured process that involves both spouses, and their prospective attorneys, and a third neutral party, called a mediator. The mediator is usually a retired judge or former attorney, and they are specially trained in conflict resolution. Their job is to go from one party to the other, attempting to understand each side’s wishes and concerns, relaying these wishes and concerns to the other side, and so on, back and forth. Other neutral professionals may also be present during mediation, such as a mental health counselor, child psychologist or custody expert, or accountants/financial expert.
What are the Risks of Mediation?
There are no risks to meditation. If, at the end of the day, the parties cannot come to a resolution on specific matters, they are not bound to any type of court mandate or court order, as would be the case if the divorce were being handled by a judge. For any divorce or family matter to be legally finalized through mediation, both parties need to be in agreement, and sign documents upon coming to the agreement.
Benefits to Mediation
Aside from being risk free, other benefits to mediation, versus a contested divorce in court, include the following:
- Less expensive;
- Takes less time;
- None of the information discussed becomes part of the public record;
- Less stressful; and
- Can be done on your timeline, as opposed to being at the whim of the court.
Court Ordered Mediation
The Maryland family court handling your divorce may require you to attempt some form of ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) before you file a court case. Only in certain cases will a court deem mediation inappropriate to attempt before a court hearing, such as Maryland Rules of Procedure Rule 9-205(b)(2), which states that if abuse is present, mediation is not appropriate.
Contact an Ellicott City Mediation Attorney Today
Our Ellicott City mediation attorneys can help bring closure to your marriage in the most stress-free, least expensive way possible, while still enabling you to seek the asset distribution, child support, alimony, and child custody decisions that you want. Call Weinberg & Schwartz, L.L.C. today at 410-997-0203 to schedule a consultation.
