Do Divorce Lawyers Understand Divorce Mediation?

Tim: The myth was all Divorce lawyers understand and support Mediation. That was the myth specifically.

So I turned this into, do divorce lawyers understand Divorce Mediation? And we can answer that in a couple different ways.

Lisa: No, I don’t think they understand the pure process of mediation. They just have had a different training and different mindset.

A lot of attorneys, a lot I think I’ve mentioned before have gone through the mediation training in order to retain more clients.

And they understand that this is something that is becoming more popular and people are actually looking towards.

Tim: Yes.

And so they’ve decided to like incorporate that into their businesses. I don’t think they really understand the benefits of the pure mediation process.

And a lot of them aren’t able to do it without switching over to their litigation mindset.

Tim: So that’s why we talked about that before. It’s kind of just a mindset is different.

Lisa: It is. And the training and you have to have a certain type of personality, even make it to Law School.

That alone and become an attorney and pass the bar and practice. It’s adversarial. It’s competitive.

It’s win-loose. It’s get the leg up. Mediation is exact opposite.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: And they have the hard time understanding that the process should be completely opposite from what to do with their litigation clients.

So I don’t think they understand it completely. They’re able to do it. They have their certification.

They have their training. They understand that they can’t represent one or the other after mediation but as far as pure process and the communicative part of it, I don’t think they really understand that part of it.

Tim: Okay. And we talked about that quite a bit before. So a big difference between an attorney mediator and a paid non-attorney mediator through the mindset of the mediator…

Lisa: Just a different perspective. It’s a different way of seeing the end result.

Tim: Right. And I thought one of my questions were how to choose a Divorce Mediator. See if I have that on here anywhere.

Well, that’s it. It’s certainly something that they should consider…

Lisa: Yes.

Tim: …when choosing a Divorce Mediator is they want attorney mediator, they want a non-attorney mediator…

Lisa: And it will be a completely different experience either way. I think you will be able to get somewhat of the result you are looking for.

And it will be a little bit quicker and that will be cheaper if you go mediation route.

If you would like to get away from that adversarial, aggressive, competitive process, then I will recommend a different perspective coming from a different mindset.

A non-attorney mediator would be your best bet.

Tim: And cost like to?

Lisa: A lot cheaper.

Tim: A lot cheaper for your mediation service than because when you pay mediation from attorney you’re paying their…

Lisa: You’re paying all the stuff that goes in with their firm and everything that they’re involved in.

Tim: Yes.

Lisa: So…

Tim: There’s lot of little hidden fees.