If you’re a prospective divorcing party in the Milwaukee metro area or elsewhere in Wisconsin, you likely have some questions and concerns regarding the dissolution process.
That’s understandable. Divorce is a big deal, a major life event that upends the status quo and materially shapes the future.
Do you worry about how things will play out?
Many people do. They ponder the costs, the potentially heavy expenditure of time and effort, and the sheer formalism that might feature. They wonder about how they might negotiate and resolve challenging issues linked with child custody/visitation, future support, property division and additional concerns.
Importantly, too, they worry whether they might be burning relational bridges that will bar meaningful – and sometimes necessary – post-divorce interactions with their future former partners.
Those concerns and more commonly arise for impending exes who focus closely on a “traditional” divorce process conducted in a courtroom under the oversight of a judge. That spells a chilled atmosphere marked by adversarialism and significant control exercised by a third party.
Is there an option? Is there – as queried by one in-depth legal overview of court-litigated alternatives to divorce – a process that better “facilitates communications, promotes understanding, focuses the parties on their interests and seeks creative problem solving to enable the parties to reach their own agreement?”
Indeed, there often is for divorcing spouses willing to engage the divorce mediation process and take advantage of its many conferred benefits.
The fundamentals and notable upsides of divorce mediation
An authoritative Wisconsin legal source addressing the mediated divorce process and its clear benefits yielded for many parties terms it an often “better way” for divorcing spouses. Here are some reasons why that emerge from comparison with courtroom litigation:
- Instant likelihood of enhanced and mutually beneficial interaction between parties inclined to be civil in their exchanges
- Significant savings in time and money
- Greater autonomy over the process regarding timing, topic selection and legal outcomes
- Tighter privacy controls
- Reduction of parental conflict leading to a better long-term outlook for post-divorce family unity and children’s well-being
Those bulleted benefits are obviously strong selling points for many parties contemplating mediation as a divorce option. And they underscore that, while mediated divorce is not for everyone (some decouplings are simply destined to play out in court), the process is an optimal venue in legions of cases.
The central role played by a divorce mediator
Mediators are neutral third parties that guide the mediation process and strive to help divorcing couples successfully negotiate a mutual settlement.
Finding the “right” mediator is obviously important. Questions might reasonably be presented to a law firm that employs certified family law and divorce mediators. Proven divorce mediation credentials can help provide assurance that professionals guiding the process possess an established record of client advocacy.