DIVORCE
MEDIATION SERVICES
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1. What is Divorce
Mediation?
Divorce
Mediation is a voluntary, confidential
process which is respectful,
inexpensive and beneficial in cost,
time and relationship savings.
It results in a Divorce Agreement which
includes a parenting plan with all details
about living arrangements for children,
all financial arrangements for children
and parents, all division of marital
property and details concerning medical,
life insurance, asset and liability
allocation and tax considerations.
2.
Can mediation be successful if the couple
has already retained lawyers and are
involved in the court process?
Yes, definitely.
Individual counsel from advocacy attorneys
is helpful. Better yet, having first-hand
experience, even, with an adversarial
mindset and approach may be just the
experience a couple needs to know that
using a collaborative mediation
approach is more congenial with their
values and long-term needs in being
able to negotiate with each other around
their own and children's needs.
3.
What if you believe your partner is
or will not reveal all income or assets
from the marriage or partnership?
The mediation
financial questionnaire accomplishes
"informal discovery",
a signed listing of ALL income and assets
of a marriage with backup documentation
and is signed under the "penalties
of perjury". If joint agreements
are made by the couple on the basis
of incomplete or erroneous information,
fraud is being committed, with it's
penalties, and what would otherwise
be a final division can be subject to
court review.
Mediation
participants must believe and sign-off
that they trust that all income and
assets from the marriage have voluntarily
been revealed and that in their decision-making
about child support, alimony and division
of property they have been fully financially
informed.
4.
What techniques does THE NEGOTIATION
COLLABORATIVE use to address power/knowledge
imbalances between a couple?
One of
the most frequently encountered imbalances
is when one of the parties has more
knowledge of finances, tax ramifications,
methods of valuation of assets, businesses,
pensions. By referring the other spouse
to experts in one or more of those areas,
a "knowledge imbalance" may
begin to be redressed. The advisory
attorney, during mediation, may be a
forceful advocate for and coach of a
party whose power and knowledge need
augmenting.
5.
Does the cost of advisory/review attorneys
increase the cost of mediation dramatically?
Review/advisory
attorneys advocate for your understanding
and achieving all the information you
need, especially information about alimony
and inheritance,and your individual
review attorney ensures that the final
divorce agreement reflects your own,
as well as the families' interests.
Your review attorney will sign your
pink 401 financial statement, and mark
you up for a hearing date in court.
We believe that the review/advisory
attorney's costs will not be dramatic
and should be planned for as a systematic
part of a thorough checks and balances
mediation process.
6.
Can the mediator go to court for the
divorce hearing?
No. The parties,
with the assistance of their advisory
attorney, get "marked up" for
a hearing date with a judge and then may
go to court with attorney(s) or go by
themselves, representing themselves "pro
se" and signing their own Pink 401
financial statements.
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Copyright
© 2004, Janet Miller
Wiseman. All rights reserved.
Revised June 2004
Design
by Sirarpi Heghinian-Walzer
of
Consult
& Design
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FAX: 781-860-9378