Justice for All, LLC

What Is Mediation?

Mediation is the process in which  a trained and certified professional neutral helps both parties reconcile their dispute, so that a mutually-satisfactory settlement agreement can be reached.

Agreements that seem impossible to reach by individual parties can be reached by a mediator through careful deliberation, caucusing, and weighing options.

That agreement becomes a legally-binding contract that both parties must then adhere to once it is officially submitted to the court.

Types of Mediation.

• Family Mediation: Which includes divorce, visitation, custody, support (also called maintenance), and those related
• Business: Landlord/tenant, contractual, construction, small business, debt collections, discrimination, sexual harassment, Americans with Disabilities Act

Using mediation, Justice for All, LLC acts as an objective third party to assist individuals, couples, businesses, and groups in discussing their disputed matters so that a mutually acceptable settlement agreement can be negotiated.

Compared to formal court procedures, mediation provides:

• -Opportunities to explain your perspective
• -Sliding-scale fees that everyone can afford
• -Faster resolutions than court
• -Confidentiality (whereas court matters are public)
• -Self-determined outcomes (whereas a judge determines outcome in court)
• -Comprehensive, customized agreements
• -Improved relationships (whereas adversarial litigation focuses on winning as opposed to reaching consensus)
• -Long-lasting results

Costs.

People considering divorce or trying to resolve a business dispute through traditional adversarial litigation often are surprised when they learn they must first pay a retainer fee before most lawyers will consult them regarding their matter. Typical retainer fees can be $1200 to $1400, just to get started.

Next, they must pay anywhere from $200 to $300 per hour for the lawyer’s services. Resolving a divorce or business dispute usually takes several  months at least. In fact, the average American divorce takes several years to reach a conclusion in court.

According to a recent article at the website Bankrate.com, the typical American divorce can cost between $25,000 and $30,000 to finally conclude. MSN.com puts the average cost for the typical American divorce at $28,000. Quoting the article “10 Keys to a Truly Cheap Divorce,” on MSN, “mediation reduces your divorce bill because it reduces your billable hours — you and your spouse shoulder the burden of gathering and sharing information yourselves, and while your mediator’s hourly rates may not be any cheaper than those of your attorney, you’ll spend far less time together. You and your spouse can, nevertheless, opt to retain separate lawyers in order to review the final settlement.”

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 there may even be other legal repercussions.

Both parties involved 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 both parents “fighting it out” with the other.

There is a way to resolve disputes and end divorces without hostility, acquiring massive debt, and potentially hurting children caught in the middle.

Mediation.

When I meet people in different courts throughout Colorado, they are usually unfamiliar with the concept of mediation.

They don’t know about mediation as a real alternative to litigation because they’ve never been introduced to it.

Mediation may not be as dramatic as courtroom litigation, as hiring an attorney to make the other side “pay.” Mediation is not adversarial, certainly not confrontational, and is not for people wanting “revenge” on another side.

Mediation is focused on resolving disputes, finding solutions, finding points of agreement in order to reach a settlement.

But it’s real and it works, with success rates of 90% and higher.

Coming Out of Mediation.

Agreements reached in mediation are legally-binding and resolve 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.

In mediation, the parties involved don’t need the services of an attorney or judge. They are certainly welcome to 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?