Libertyville Divorce Mediation Attorney
Lake County Amicable Property Division, Child Support and Custody Lawyer
Why is Divorce Mediation beneficial for you?
Divorce cases are unlike many civil law suits. There are no corporations or insurance companies paying for the litigation. You and your spouse pay for the cost of the divorce.
Resolving a divorce through a court hearing has many disadvantages.
It is expensive and time consuming. Family law attorneys are paid by the hour. The more trips to the court house, the more expensive the divorce, it is just that simple.
You lose control. Where a husband and wife cannot make decisions regarding their property and their parenting issues, then a judge makes the decisions and both spouses lose control over the outcome.
Difficulty in Parenting. After repeated trips to court, tensions usually rise and parents who have been trying to co-operate with one another in order to parent the children, often find it more difficult to do so.
I often ask my clients, who are parents, the following questions:
Why would you want a stranger, that is a judge, to make decisions about what is most important to you - your children?
Why not meet with a professional mediator and let the mediator help you work out the parenting issues?
What is Mediation?
If you want a mediated divorce then you select a family law mediator from the court's list of mediators.
You and your spouse meet with a specially trained divorce mediator, privately, at the mediator's office. The mediator's job is to be a neutral, to help you and your spouse reach agreements regarding property, support and parenting. Once agreements are reached, the mediator will draft a written memorandum reciting the agreements reached in mediation. You will then take that agreement to your individual attorney who will prepare all of the necessary documents to finalize your divorce case. The cost of using a divorce attorney will be substantially less, as compared to a litigated divorce, because you will only need a small amount of the divorce attorney's time.
Of course, in cases where domestic violence has occurred, or when a spouse has a substance abuse problem, mediation is not appropriate. In mediation, both spouses must be safe. At the Law Office of Cynthia L. Lazar we do not hesitate to take our clients into the courtroom when it is necessary to do so.
You are not risking anything by first trying to mediate your divorce. If agreements cannot be reached, then the case can always be taken into court where the judge will make the decisions.
Cynthia L. Lazar is a certified family law mediator. At the Law Office of Cynthia L. Lazar we provide mediation services where this law firm does not already represent either of the parties in an ongoing divorce case.
Collaborative Law
Collaborative law is another method for resolving divorce issues without the need for a hearing in front of a judge. Although in collaborative law you and your spouse attend meetings with your own attorneys at your side, the goal is problem solving as opposed to litigating.
Contact Me
During an initial consultation, I will answer your questions regarding collaborative law and mediation. We can discuss whether collaborative law or mediation is right for you.
