The Shocking Cost of Divorce

While the added expense of living in two separate households may be obvious in a divorce case,  consider the insane cost of legal fees if you and your spouse choose to litigate your divorce.

In this excellent blog posting, Cris Pastore outlines some of the additional costs you may be faced with if to go to court.  Consultation fees, retainer fees, court hearings for child custody, child support, and equitable distribution of marital property can easily result in 2-4 year court battles and $40,000 or more in counsel fees.

What if you could avoid excessive legal costs - and still be able to work out a fair arrangement?  You can choose divorce mediation to resolve your separation or divorce.  But there is one catch, you and your spouse have to both agree to do this. 

If you or someone you know could benefit from assistance in decision making during a divorce, contact Falmouth Mediation at 508-566-4159 for a free, no-obligation, private, confidential consultation.  We will be happy to discuss the key details of your situation, address any concerns, and help you decide if divorce mediation would be beneficial.

How to Get a Mortgage After a Divorce

In a divorce, it's bad enough that you're losing someone you once loved or may still love. It’s even worse when you find out you may lose your house, too.

In this very informative article, Geoff Williams writes how, whether you're in the midst of a divorce or its aftermath, there are some things you can do to land a mortgage and what you can reasonably expect.

Uncontested Divorce - We Agree On Everything?

In Massachusetts, there are two broad categories of divorce: contested and uncontested. An uncontested divorce is defined as "both people agree about everything they file." 

This might lead many couples in the midst of marital conflict - perhaps fighting about more issues than they agree upon - to think uncontested divorce isn't right for them. In fact, the term "uncontested divorce" and its standard definition are somewhat misleading and can lead divorcing spouses to prematurely limit their options.

In this excellent blog posting Rackham Karlsson address two common myths about uncontested divorce:

Myth #1: Uncontested divorce is only for couples who agree on everything.

In fact, many uncontested divorces involve a period of deliberation and negotiation about important issues in the divorce, such as asset division, child support and/or alimony, and parenting schedules
 
Myth #2: Uncontested divorce is easy.

Getting to the point where you can file for an uncontested divorce can be hard, especially if there are children involved. You are taking a family's resources — time, money, energy — and dividing them between two households. Nobody will emerge from the process unaffected.

If you or someone you know could benefit from assistance in decision making during a divorce, contact Falmouth Mediation at 508-566-4159 for a free, no-obligation, private, confidential consultation.  We will be happy to discuss the key details of your situation, address any concerns, and help you decide if divorce mediation would be beneficial. 

What Does It Mean To Be "Fair" During A Divorce?

The other day a client called looking for a referral to a divorce attorney.  She and her spouse had agreed on distribution of their assets and liabilities and she was concerned if their agreement was "equitable" as defined by Massachusetts law.

It took a while for her to understand that, within reason, an equitable distribution was in the eyes of the beholder and very specific to her and her spouse's situation rather than something for which she needed to get a legal opinion.

In this excellent blog posting, Ben Stich writes how trying to make equal decisions in marriages and divorces is possible but probably won’t get couples what they need.  Instead, while trying to make fair and reasonable decisions in marriages and divorces might be harder, it will improve communication, decrease resentment, and far more likely give both parties what they need.

A College Financial Aid Guide for Families Who Have Saved Nothing

Whenever I mediate divorcing couples with minor children, one area of great concern is funding their children's college education. Facing the prospect of maintaining separate households without any increase in income, parents understandably are concerned and often feel helpless about their ability to save for the increasingly huge cost of today's college costs.

This excellent article in The New York Times by Ron Lieber offers a guide for families staggering into their children's senior year and trying to make one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives.