Welcome.
People considering divorce or resolving business disputes often spend thousands of dollars to pay a lawyer’s retainer fee. Then they pay anywhere from $200 to $300 per hour for the lawyer’s services. It usually takes months, sometimes years to resolve divorces and many legal matters.
According to a recent article at the website Bankrate.com, the typical American divorce may cost between $20,000 and $30,000 to finally conclude. The financial costs do not begin to address emotional tolls taken by the combative system of “lawyering up,” pitting one side against the other.
People go to court and roll the dice, depending on attorneys to represent them and judges to render a verdict, telling them one party will be right and the other wrong. Fines may be issued in addition to legal fees, and sentences may even be passed.
They pay untold sums of money, spend months or years anxious and upset in anticipation, let their lawyers fight it out in court, and lives may be forever devastated, children often traumatized by one parent “fighting it out” with the other.
What if there was a way to resolve disputes and end divorces without hostility, acquiring massive debt, and potentially hurting children caught in the middle? What if it was simpler, easier, faster, and more affordable?
Mediation.
When I meet people in different courts, or throughout Colorado, they are usually unfamiliar with the concept of mediation.
They’re not sure what it can do for them, if it’s legal and legitimate, if it’s a gimmick of some sort…or that it can save them time, costly litigation, stress, and even relationships.
They don’t know about mediation as a real alternative because they’ve never been introduced to it.
It’s not as expensive to the consumer as litigation is, not as time-consuming, not as common; and since it’s not as well-known, it isn’t as “sexy.” But it’s real and it works, with average success rates of 90% and higher.
What is Mediation?
Mediation is the process by which two parties, in disagreement, work out a mutually-satisfactory settlement. The mediator is a person who is a trained and certified neutral, who does not have an interest in what either party may or may not do to reach understanding, only that a dispute resolution is reached that everyone can be satisfied with and understands fully.
Coming Out of Mediation.
When done right, mediation is legally-binding and resolves the vast majority of potential disputes easily and efficiently. Often, parties involved in mediation come out of their situation better off than they were before. Sometimes issues a judge would not hear in court are acceptable in mediation, and what might not be admissible in court may be reviewed and considered in mediation.
"Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser. In fees, expenses, and waste of time." Abraham Lincoln
In mediation, the parties involved don’t need the services of an attorney or judge. They are certainly welcome to attend and have input, but they don’t have to for the process to move forward. The mediator navigates the rough waters of both parties’ interests and involvement, listens fairly to both perspectives, lets people let off steam, and settles what many people believe can only be done with lawyers and judges; settling the case.
Real Solutions for Real People.
Matters heard in mediation are often resolved more quickly than most court proceedings or cases, more affordable, more accessible, easier to schedule, a party cannot be found guilty, sentences are not given, and you may come out of the situation better off than you were before-because you have more control over the process and more input. Taking this into consideration, why not give mediation a try?
