Different Types Of California Divorce Mediators

Today we’re talking about the different types of divorce mediation companies in California.

First off, let’s talk about certification. To become a mediator, a divorce mediator or to call yourself a mediator, all it requires is forty hours of training.

I’ve found that there are online training courses. You can go to a facility to be trained but there’s not a whole lot of training that’s required to become or call yourself a mediator.

Now, let’s talk about the two types of mediator you’ll find when it comes to divorce.

First is someone who will sit down with you, talk with you try and help you work with your differences, but these are a non-attorney mediators.

These are someone who is going to basically just sit down with you and try and help you work out something that’s fair. It may or may not be something that’s in your best interest or it may not have anything to do with your legal rights are.

It’s just going to be helping you guys work through a fair agreement. If that is all you need, someone to help you, sit down with you, talk with you, maybe have a little bit of counselling to get you guys to come to an agreement. That’s fine.

Just know that all you’re going to end up with is a verbal agreement or at the very most a letter will be written out what you’re agreement is that you’re going to sign.

Now, that document signed or not is not useful for purposes of divorce other than the fact that you came to an agreement.

So, that’s great that you came to an agreement but that document that you get from them, that you sign or don’t sign that has your agreements down on paper is not a court document, not a legal document it’s not something you’ll submit to court.

I guess it would just be something that you guys can say, well here’s what we’ve agreed to but really it’s not legally binding as suppose you could sign it and if it had the appropriate legal language it could be something you could sue for but as far as divorce is concerned it’s not going to be of much use.

Now, the second type of mediator is an attorney mediator. An attorney who is going to be operating as a neutral who you and your spouse will meet with and sit down. Now, this person knows the law hopefully.

They can discuss with you family law. They can tell you the ins and outs, the pros and cons. What your best case scenario is. What your worst case scenarios is and help you come to an agreement and then what they’ll do is, they’ll draft a legally binding marital settlement agreement.

This will have this sufficient language that you and your spouse can sign and that’s what will be submitted to the court.

Now, in the first case, those mediation services. They do not result in a marital settlement agreement are going to be much cheaper.

I’ve seen people pay $200 or $300 total to sit down and not know how long to spend with them but that is something that’s going to be a lot less expensive but you’re not really getting a document at the end that is going to be useful for your divorce.

An attorney mediator is going to give you a marital settlement agreement at the end which you can simply attach to your judgment, which will be your final agreement in your divorce case.

That’s going to be more expensive but you’re actually getting an attorney to do it where you have a marital settlement agreement at the end which you need to file for a divorce.

Now, if you are using mediation, all they’re going to do is mediate for you. They’re not going to help you prepare for your divorce documents in most cases.

That’s where we come in. give us a call, we can help you prepare all the divorce documents that needed to be attached to marital settlement agreement and submit your case to court. If you need an assistance finding a mediator and you are in our local area please give us a call.

I’d be happy to refer you to a great mediation service and I just want to talk to you about that today so you had an understanding of what you’ll get with these different types of divorce mediators.

My name is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com.

We are headquartered in Santa Clarita, California but we can help you with your divorce anywhere in California. Please feel free to give me a call at 661-281-0266 or go to our website at divorce661.com