When people think of legal disputes, they often picture those disagreements being resolved in court. However, resolving disagreements in divorce over child custody, property division, spousal support and other issues in court can be costly, time-consuming, acrimonious and stressful – all significant downsides, especially for parents.
Alternative to litigation
For people facing divorce, there’s an alternative in Maryland to litigation. Mediation can enable divorcing spouses to settle contentious and complex matters in resolutions acceptable to both parties.
In the mediation process, a skilled mediator helps deescalate tensions and enable couples who have had breakdowns of communication to speak to one another again and work out a divorce settlement.
The trained mediator represents both parties fairly, helping to clarify each spouse’s priorities and goals so that both parties gain a clear understanding of the other’s positions.
By facilitating communication and encouraging cooperation, the mediator helps the spouses arrive at a divorce agreement that resolves often complex, long-standing and emotional disputes over issues such as child custody and parenting plans.
Setting a good example
Because mediation can help the divorcing parties to improve their communications, it can reduce hostilities, which in turn serves to minimize the anxiety and tension children can experience when their parents end their marriage.
The mediation process can also take significantly less time than litigation in which the process is dependent on court schedules in a legal system that has been slowed and even stalled at times over the past year.
Perhaps best of all, mediation enables you and your spouse to determine the details of your divorce settlement, rather than having a court decide what’s best.
While mediation isn’t for everyone, the process can help couples – especially parents – to reach mutually agreed upon resolutions with civility and compromise that shows their children that even profound disagreements can be settled in healthy, amicable ways.
