Missouri Divorce Laws

Mediation is really popular – it’s very trendy. Lots of people are interested in the idea of mediation and it makes sense because really the thought behind it is parties get together, they sit down, they talk through their disputes versus having a judge decide how things are going to work.

So I think that’s the big plus to mediation, and most people’s conceptions of it is pretty accurate. The big thing for most folks to really understand is that if they go to mediation, most commonly it’s the party’s going alone with a neutral mediator. And the neutral mediator then helps facilitate a discussion between the parties in terms of creative resolutions that might be out there. A big difference between mediation and simply having an attorney on the front end though is the mediator can’t divorce you. So if you reach an agreement in mediation, then generally speaking, one of the parties at least is still going to need to hire an attorney to file the divorce in court, file settlement paperwork in court, and conclude it.

But at the end of the day, if parties are able to do this, they can save a lot of money, they can save a lot of time, and certainly the heartache of going through a contentious divorce isn’t the case if parties can reach a resolution in mediation.

By: Kirk C. Stange

High Asset Divorce Case

Those going through a high asset divorce really have a lot at stake, because a lot of those individuals have worked very hard to get where they are in life. And so, when they’re going through divorce, they’ve got a lot of concerns. They’re concerned about how they’re able to preserve their assets and kind of maintain that standard of living that they took so much effort and time to build up.

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And so lots of different things that folks going through a high asset divorce ought to at least consider doing, versus maybe individuals who don’t have a lot of assets, I would say is having expert help. In some cases you might want a forensic accountant. You might need an appraiser. You might need what’s called a business evaluator if a business is involved in the case. And so think about expert witnesses. They can become crucial in a high asset case. And then another key piece is really having a good inventory or list of the assets that are out there.

Obviously in a simple case there’s not a whole lot there, but the complex cases, it’s really critical to be very organized, very concise with your attorney, so your attorney knows how to best represent you in the process versus kind of finding out through the case, you know, there’s this asset and that asset that maybe the attorney didn’t know about from day one.

By: Kirk C. Stange

Lots of parties have heard about divorces where it’s acrimonious and there’s a lot of anger, and the proceedings end up being long and end up costing a lot of money. A prenuptial agreement can be a great tool because parties before entering into marriage are able to sit down with each other, talk about various scenarios, and consider what might happen if the marriage doesn’t ultimately work, and so it is a cost savings medium.

A prenuptial agreement is very useful, very effective. Lots of folks still think prenuptial agreements aren’t romantic and they’re kind of adverse to the idea of doing a prenuptial agreement. But at the end of the day, it really can save folks lots of money. It could keep people out of court. And if the marriage doesn’t work, it could be a much better process if parties at least consider the idea of having a prenuptial agreement.

By: Kirk C. Stange

Collaborative law is very similar to mediation but there’s a couple of key differences. Again, the parties sit down, they talk. They try to have creative resolutions discussed amongst them, and the idea is that they can come to a resolution that works best for them versus simply having a judge decide it.

The key differences, however, is in collaborative law, you have an attorney who’s present with you during the collaborative proceedings, and these are attorneys that are trained in collaborative law. At Stange Law Firm, we’ve got attorneys that can help you if you need a collaborative divorce attorney. And then additionally, versus having a mediator, what you have in collaborative law is various professionals that can assist in the process. For example, financial neutrals can be present, help parties work through the financial issues that might take place in a case.

In some cases, there might be a lot of emotions, people might have hurt feelings in terms of the divorce. In these instances, a divorce coach can be useful to help the parties deal with the emotional issues that might take place in a case. And then you can have a custody professional as well, help give opinions in terms of what might be in the best interest of the kids in a particular case.

So collaborative law is kind of mediation plus because you have these various professionals that can help assist in the process. And I’d say, another key feature is your collaborative attorney can actually file the case in court and complete the divorce, unlike mediation, if an agreement is reached, and that is a key plus for collaborative law versus mediation. And then I would say, additionally, a good thing about collaborative law is there’s no court file littered with nasty motions, maybe embarrassing allegations. So if you’re able to do a collaborative divorce, it can be a good thing in terms of privacy.

By: Kirk C. Stange