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Mediation Process | Missouri Family Law

Kirk C. Stange | 929 Views | 03/09/2015

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

Mediation Process | Missouri Family Law

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