PROS AND CONS OF MEDIATION IN THE DIVORCE PROCESS

Divorce lawyers in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who have a firm grasp of the divorce process, understand and agree that mediation is an invaluable tool in getting clients through divorce and family law litigation.  The pros of mediation are far outweighed by the cons and the cons have a shortlist.  Family law lawyers in Grand Rapids, Michigan will direct their clients to use the services of an experienced mediator.  The more experience the better.  The client’s interests are best served by a mediator who has at least 25 years of practicing law, however,30 years is preferred.  The pros of having this level of expertise are numerous.  The mediator not only has a firm grasp of the law applicable to divorce, custody or family law issues in Michigan, an experienced mediator will also have an intimate knowledge of the tendencies of each judge who is presiding over the client’s divorce or family law case.  It is critical to have a clear understanding of what your Judge’s likes and doesn’t like when it comes to presenting your case and how to best approach the issues in such a manner that will not be offensive to the Judge and that will give the client the best appearance and footing when it comes time for the Judge to make decisions.  The goal of mediation is to give the client an opportunity to have a neurtal third party, objective, and expert opinion on their positions and what the likely outcomes may be.   It is not uncommon for these mediators to have practiced law with the Judge for several years before that Judge even took the bench, and more importantly, for several years after the Judge took the bench.  The top divorce lawyers in Grand Rapids, Mi understand that clients are so much better off having the neutral forum of discussion that mediation provides than to go through the stress of having to roll the dice in front of a stressed-out Judge who is trying to make multiple decisions for multiple litigants on a busy motion day or worse yet, a trial. Mediation is a relaxed setting in the mediator’s office where each side is able to have a private individual conversation with the mediator to present their side of the story.  A skilled mediator then brings the parties together in an effort to resolve all of the outstanding issues or at least most of them.  A divorce could have ten contested issues and if the mediator can settle most of them, that mediator has conducted a successful mediation because now the Judge may only have to decide one or two of the last remaining issues of dispute.  The most obvious pro of mediation in a divorce is that you can avoid tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fees for trial preparation and trial itself, by resolving your case as mediation.  Mediation works extremely well for resolving the initial process of divorce as well as the conclusion of the entire divorce.

Family law attorneys in Grand Rapids, Michigan will prepare the client thoroughly for mediation.  The mediator must have current values of all of the financial accounts, retirement accounts, and debts of the parties in order to conduct an effective mediation.  The client should also have appraisals of any real property involved for mediation as well as any needed business valuations.

The cons of mediation are few.  There is an argument that it is an extra added cost to pay the mediator for their services to review the documents and mediation summaries and to mediate the case for 2-4 hours on average.  This con is still outweighed by the immense savings on attorney fees and costs that are needed to prepare for trial and conduct a trial, and all of these immense fees and costs can be avoided with mediation.  The best divorce lawyers in Grand Rapids, Michigan will always recommend mediation to clients as a cost-effective and much less stressful approach to resolving their divorce, custody and family law cases.