Does Divorce Mediation Make The Divorce Take Longer

Tim: Okay, the next myth. Mediation makes the Divorce take longer.

So does Divorce Mediation make the Divorce take longer?

Lisa: No. If anything it’s a lot shorter. It’s a lot quicker. I think we’ve discussed in other topics about the litigation.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: And the attorneys and the court dates can drag on for months, sometimes years just trying to get in to see the judge, just trying to get the paperwork filed, getting their spouse to respond.

Mediation in three sessions, you know, if you want to spread them out in two months, we could have it finished from beginning to end.

And with what your company does, you take that agreement and you file it.

And, yes, there is six months period of waiting. The cool off period of whatever…

Tim: Right.

Lisa: …from the time you file until it’s settled. But you can easily get it done within the six months if not quicker but then you still need to wait for that six months period to be done.

Tim: Yes, what we do normally is we’ll get the case filed for them. Get them served. And that service date is the date the date starts.

And with the cooling process taking six months, we’re like often times if we can get the agreements done within the few months get it submitted to the court way ahead of time.

You don’t have to wait up to six months to submit the agreements.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: In the perfect world that would work if you could walk up to the judge and six months after service and say, ‘Sign my agreement.’

Lisa: Yes.

Tim: But there’s two to three months waiting period just because the court is so busy.

Lisa: Exactly!

Tim: So if they file their paperwork and they get that all in one by getting served and starting the clock on everything, get the financial disclosures completely, they can almost immediately start mediation even the same week.

Lisa: Yes.

Tim: And get those whatever issues they have addressed. Come up with the understanding an agreement.

And those come back to us. They end up in the judgment. Get submitted within a month or two of the whole process starting.

Lisa: Yes.

Tim: And so it’s actually much quicker.

Lisa: It’s much quicker…

Tim: …to do mediation.

Lisa: And then you can…

Tim: If you need help coming of those types of agreements.

Lisa: Exactly! And I think that once you make those agreements and you go through a mediation process and then you use your company to get those filed with the court in a timely fashion, they can vence it back and start the healing process and move on.

In the litigation they’re limbo for months. And there’s no time to sit back and ‘Okay, what am I going to do next? What are my next steps?’

Tim: Right.

Lisa: And when they get those mediation agreements in place and everything filed….

Tim: Then it’s done.

Lisa: …then they can say, ‘Okay, what is next in our life? What can we do with our children now? What and can I start looking for with any person in our life? Is there something we can do as co-parents starting now even though the six months period isn’t out?’

And in mediation allows that to happen quicker?

Tim: And in comparison to litigation or even using attorneys.

Lisa: Yes.

Tim: Even if they’re not going to litigate?

Lisa: Right.

Tim: Even if they just want to have an attorney address their needs and they’re going to eventually, broke their deal for each of them.

That takes longer simply because with the process work and I worked in the law firm for a couple of years is they’ll write a letter to their attorney…

The attorney will talk to their client. They’ll write a letter two weeks later with the response.

And it just really goes long.

Lisa: And it’s from the attorneys’ time table not the clients’ time table.

Tim: Oh yeah!

Lisa: When the attorney gets to it, when the attorney sends the letter, when the attorney has time to respond.

In Mediation, you come in when you have a chance. You come in on your time table. We get this done on your time table.

Tim: Right. So yes, so, it is sky is the limit if it’s litigation. I mean it could be years with the same cases for years for litigation.

Lisa: Yes.

Tim: So mediation is definitely better.

Lisa: Yes.

Tim: Time wise…

Lisa: Much quicker.

Tim: …when going…