WHY MEDIATE INSTEAD OF LITIGATING?
Litigation is an adversarial process where final decisions are made by the judge in open court. The public exposure of private matters often adds to the emotional trauma of the divorce and often involves the adverse involvement by friends and extended families. Conversely, mediation provides a private forum for discussing, exploring and making jointly negotiated decisions for the parties and/or their children. In litigation, the outcome is unknown and may result in unhappy surprise to one or both parties, relating to one or more of the issues. In mediation, the parties stay in control of their needs and obligations, and therefore will not be unhappily surprised. Parties of successful mediation are more likely to comply with the agreements they have personally negotiated. At the end of litigation, parties, as “winners” and “losers” may continue in personal conflict over some or all of those issues and are more likely to end in a future dispute over matters litigated to one party’s extre
