Are mediated divorces better for children than litigated divorces?

While every situation is different, mediated divorces are generally better for the children involved than if the divorce goes through litigation.

Mediated divorces provide an opportunity for the parents of a child to come up with parenting plans that are uniquely suited for the child’s well-being and for the ability and resources of each parent. These are often far better suited for the child’s needs than those that are determined by a divorce court judge, who only sees the dynamics of your family from an outsider’s perspective, and only for a short period of time.

Perhaps more importantly, though, mediated divorces avoid much of the adversarial nature that is the hallmark of a litigated divorce. The kind of conflict that often comes during litigation frequently leads to stress and tension in the personal lives of the spouses who are separating, and this has a negative impact on the children in the family. Even worse, many litigated divorces involve children being called on to provide testimony through court-appointed investigators such as Guardian ad Litems. Even if it does not occur in open court, a child’s testimony can have a great deal of influence on issues surrounding child custody and child support and children, even young ones, apprehend the seriousness of the situation, which can be incredibly stressful for them.

Divorce Myths

When you’re going through a divorce you will have to make more major life decisions than you will at almost any other time in your life. If you make those decisions based on false information (i.e. based on “divorce myths”) you will probably make bad decisions.

Bad decisions lead to bad outcomes.

In divorce, bad decisions also cost you time, money and a huge amount of heartache. That’s why being able to separate fact from fiction is so important in divorce.

In this excellent blog posting, Karen Covey debunks some of the biggest divorce myths floating around today.

 

1. The Divorce System is Fair

2. The Judge Will Rule in My Favor

3. Assets in a Divorce are Divided 50/50.

4. Children Can Choose Which Parent They Want to Live With.

5. Divorce is Primarily a Legal Problem.

6. Custody of the Children Always Goes to the Mom.

7. I’ll Get More if My Spouse Cheated on Me.

8. I Can Stop My Spouse From Divorcing Me.

9. I Don’t Have to Let My Ex See the Kids if S/He Doesn’t Pay Child Support.

10. If I Don’t Like My Divorce Settlement, I Can Change it Later.

Enforcing Family Court Orders With Contempt Actions

Court-issued orders during or after divorce, such as a child support order or visitation schedule, are legally binding. Failing to abide by the conditions listed in the order can lead to you being held in contempt and will subject you to court penalties.

In this excellent article, Shawn Garrison provides a broad overview of contempt including what constitutes contempt, the consequences of contempt and how to file for contempt.

Divorce Mediation When You Own a Business

When a couple decides to get a divorce and one or both of them owns a business, the process is going to be a lot more complicated. Businesses can be a major point of contention between divorcing spouses, with questions over ownership, valuation, and other important issues that need to be resolved.

When business owners divorce, it is definitely not a straightforward process, but this does not necessarily mean you have to litigate the case. You can effectively resolve the issues related to a family-owned or closely held business through mediation, as long as you work with a mediation service that has extensive experience with these types of cases and an in-depth understanding of the complexities involved.

On the other hand, if both spouses hire attorneys, things can become very expensive, and the process could drag out for an extended period of time. With this traditional approach, each spouse will typically hire their own forensic accountant. The forensic accountants go to work performing their own analyses and producing their findings, then they negotiate between the two findings and try to work out a compromise.

In this excellent blog posting, Roseann Vanella offers a guide on how to work through the complexities business owners face, so you can develop a peaceable and workable settlement that all parties can agree to.