Mediation of the issues involved in legal separation reduces emotional stress. Couples make informed decisions about property rights, debts, custody, and support with the help of a professional mediator and avoid the expense of two adversarial lawyers.
Legal separation ends community property rights and obligations but the couple remains married. For example, when legally separated each spouse’s income is their sole and separate property, and one spouse can no longer obligate the other for any debt he or she incurs. On the other hand, divorce ends both the marriage and community property rights and obligations.
Mediation of legal separation occurs in the same way and typically involves the same issues as mediation of divorce. Couples work together with a professional mediator to reach agreements concerning division assets (such as real estate, investment accounts, and retirement benefits), allocation of debts, child and/or spousal support, and parenting arrangements for minor children.
Out-of-Court Solutions’ mediators are experienced in law, psychology, and business. Our mediators help couples fully understand all of the legal, financial, parenting, and other issues involved in their situation. Our mediators also help couples communicate, negotiate, explore alternative ways of resolving disagreements, and deal with the anger, sadness and other emotions that are likely in these situations. After a couple has reached full agreement, our mediators draft a comprehensive and legally binding settlement agreement.
In mediation, couples decide what's best for them, rather than surrendering control to attorneys or a judge. They reach agreement based on their particular relationship, needs, and standards. This takes place in a safe, collaborative environment and is significantly less stressful than the adversarial, win-lose procedures involved in court-based proceedings.
Mediation is inexpensive compared to using two separate lawyers with retainers ranging from $2,000 to $7,500 and more from each party. That means you and your spouse will together have to come with $4,000 to $15,000 or more -- just to get started! With Out-of-Court Solutions you pay as you go, avoid all costly legal proceedings, and spend 50 to 75% less -- saving thousands of dollars.
All of the mediators with Out-of-Court Solutions have backgrounds in psychology and law, and strive to help couples focus on the best interests of their children. In this way, mediation fosters increased communication and reduced anger between parents, and results in less harm to children and more cooperative parenting arrangements.
When one spouse is in physical danger, or is unwilling to participate in good faith, mediation would not be an appropriate choice.
These agreements often serve as a foundation for resolution of other issues and overall agreement, expediting the mediation, further reducing the cost.
By law anything said or prepared for mediation is strictly confidential, barred from being used as evidence should you be one of the few couples who do not reach full agreement.
We are very proud of our success rate: over 95% of the couples who mediate with Out-of-Court Solutions reach full agreement.
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