What Is Family Law Mediation…and Why Bother?
My practice of family law includes the traditional approach – adversarial – and the non-traditional collaborative approach. What’s the difference? If there are children involved the difference can be significant. When two parties seek to end a marriage there is heightened pain and anger. The one thing that often gets lost in the process of dissolving the marriage is the most important thing the once loving couple have in common: sharing and caring for their children. The process of marital dissolution is one characterized by high emotion — sometimes that emotion is not entirely rationale. In this case the children can often become mere pawns for one party to “get” the other. Often this is something that the parties may not even be aware of. It is in this situation that divorce mediation is an excellent tool. Instead of focusing on what “I can get NOW” the focus shifts to “How will our lives look going forward and how will we care for our children.” The process of mediation cools the em
