Couples who want an efficient and fair divorce often seek mediation. Mediation is a collaborative process that seeks to reduce conflicts and costs by introducing a neutral, third party. The mediator is meant to keep couples focused on important divorce matters, such as asset division and child support and custody arrangements.
Cooperation during mediation is the key to success. Divorce mediation may give each spouse a preferable outcome, but that doesn’t mean a spouse is willing to put in the work to find out what that looks like. Getting a spouse to cooperate can be difficult, but not impossible. Here’s what you should know:
Understand the risks of traditional divorce
It can help each spouse to understand the costs of traditional divorce and divorce mediation as they consider their options. Traditional divorce often costs tens of thousands of dollars and can take well over a year to resolve. Once presented with that reality, an uncooperative spouse may decide it’s wiser to mediate.
Divorce mediation allows couples to discuss a divorce faster and design a flexible plan for unique situations. Furthermore, divorce mediation allows each couple to curate decisions that personally benefit them instead of letting a judge make decisions. Mediation is also a private, confidential process, whereas traditional divorce hearings are open to the public where anyone can hear about the most intimate, private, and often embarrassing details of your married life.
Making decisions for a child’s well-being
Parents often want what’s best for their children. Mediation can help couples focus on what’s needed for successful parenting after a divorce. A parenting plan made through mediation can consider some important factors, such as how each spouse’s work and school schedule may conflict with parenting hours or how each parent focuses on their children’s medical needs.
If a spouse is not cooperating during mediation, then it may help to remind them that they’re focusing on their children’s needs as well as their own.
Mediation helps resolve many complex and heightened marital disputes. Parents who understand their legal options during a divorce may find they have a better outcome pursuing mediation than seeking relief from the courts.
