It is an unfortunate fact that approximately half of all marriages in this country will ultimately end in divorce. It is also an unfortunate fact that many participants in the divorce process will find themselves in bitter, expensive and acrimonious battles. The court room becomes a battle field and the divorce becomes a war and the participants and, more importantly, their children suffer lifelong consequences.

Fortunately, divorce mediation provides a sensible and reasonable alternative. In the divorce mediation process, divorcing parties engage the services of an experienced divorce mediator who will assist the parties in reaching a fair and equitable agreement. An experienced divorce mediator can help the parties resolve all issues that arise in their divorce including custody, parenting time, support, division of property, payment of debts, etc.

Divorce mediation allows the parties to control the process and avoid expensive and bitter litigation. Instead of fighting it out in a court room, the divorcing husband and wife can address all issues in the mediation process by focusing on what is best for the children. This will enable them to reach common ground and ultimately to reach a fair agreement.

The divorce mediation process, in contrast to the traditional adversarial process, provides the parties with a civil and controlled environment in which they can discuss and resolve all issues. The parties are able to save significant sums of money and more importantly, avoid the stress and strain of bitter court room battles.

Just by way of example, I recently mediated a case in which the husband and wife had initially retained attorneys and, after spending thousands of dollars in court, had not achieved any resolution of their issues. After only a few mediation sessions, not only were these people able to resolve all outstanding issues which included custody, parenting time, support and division of assets, but they actually left the process on good terms. They also were able to save thousands of dollars which they could utilize towards their children's college education expenses.