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When parties choose to mediate their divorce, they are choosing to work together to resolve their issues and finalize the divorce by creating their own agreement with the assistance of an impartial Mediator – and thereby avoiding the expensive legal costs, emotional stress, delay, and lasting trauma that often comes with litigating and even long-term negotiation between attorneys. As your Mediator, I will work with both parties in a relaxed yet intentional environment to understand and work through both parties’ interests and positions in order to help you create a mutually beneficial resolution on all issues, while also guiding you in the logistics of legally finalizing your divorce or other family law matter.
To be clear, when I serve as your Mediator, I am not acting as a lawyer to either party, although I do draw upon my experience and knowledge of California family law and procedure to help you and your spouse reach a mutually beneficial finalization of your divorce or other family law issue. The process generally works as follows: 1) initial, brief telephone conversations with both parties to confirm their interest in mediation; 2) individual meetings with both parties to understand your goals, interests, positions, and concerns; and 3) ongoing joint meetings with both parties to help work through issues, come up with creative solutions, and eventually create a settlement agreement that finalizes the divorce or other family law matter.
Absolutely not. The defining quality of mediation is that YOU and your spouse retain the decisionmaking power over what happens to your property, custody schedule, and support arrangement. By going into mediation, you are only committing to work together to create a solution on these issues, not to hand over the power to decide. Either party can decide to terminate mediation at any time, but most divorcing couples find mediation far preferable to litigation and/or having attorneys go back and forth on issues.
Mediation can be conducted completely virtually via ZOOM, thus in-person meeting is not necessary, and I am able to work with parties across the State of California in mediating their divorce or other family law issue. That said, should the parties want in a socially-distanced arrangement, I can accommodate that as well in my downtown Los Angeles office.
When parties work together to successfully mediate their family law matter from the outset, the legal paperwork is generally minimal and straightforward. In my role as a Mediator (and not an attorney) I do not generally “draft” the paperwork but instead guide the parties through the paperwork and process to ensure their agreement and family law matter is finalized with minimal cost and delay.