Divorce Mediation in The New Year
The new year is traditionally a time for people to look at their life and assess their successes and failures and look ahead toward a new year full of hope and change. Many people make new year’s resolutions to exercise more, eat less or connect with the people you love. For couples that have been struggling for months, if not years, a new year can also be a time to mark the end of a relationship and a new beginning for your family. If you have decided that you and your spouse are going to divorce in the early part of 2021, divorce mediation might be a tool to consider in resolving important issues like division of joint property, child custody and the need for spousal support
If you and your spouse have decided it is time to take steps to end your marriage, things may be very complicated. Conflict can be extremely high, especially if you and your spouse have been struggling interpersonally for many years and have different opinions about how to move forward. You may assume that your only option is a long, expensive and stressful court battle to settle the terms of your divorce. Before you hire a lawyer, you may want to investigate the option of using divorce mediation to settle your divorce. Jeff Johnson, founder of Johnson Mediation, is available to help you navigate the divorce
Concern over the financial impact of a divorce is extremely stressful and may have even caused you to delay this important decision. In addition to dividing all of your joint property you must also think about the money it costs to go through the process. If you proceed through the traditional court system, you can expect to pay up to $15,000 in legal and court fees. Divorce can leave you with additional debt, an impact on your credit score in addition to the emotional toll the process can take. Johnson Mediation can help you and your family look ahead with a focus on you, your family and your future.
While it may not even seem possible in your situation, you can reduce the overall conflict between you and your soon to be ex-spouse during the divorce process. There is no doubt that if you have reached the point where divorce is your only option forward, there is likely at least some conflict in your relationship. In fact, you probably assume that this conflict is permanent. However, mediation allows you and your family to navigate your divorce in a healthier way, with the potential of even reducing overall conflict. Divorce mediation takes less time then litigated divorce, and is less expensive.
If you and your ex cannot agree on anything and have a history of extreme conflict, you may assume that you have no choice but to litigate your divorce in the courts. After all, how could you possibly agree on how to settle important issues like child custody and division of your shared property if you could not ever agree before. Well, before you hire attorneys and move toward a bitter court battle, consider mediation as a low cost, less stressful alternative. The team at Johnson Mediation can guide you through even an adversarial divorce.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption in our daily lives. Many of us are working from home indefinitely, have children home completing school virtually and are asked to wear masks when we enter a place of business to slow the spread of the virus. For the last several months, time has seemed to slow down and it has been difficult to get routine tasks outside of the house completed. If you are in the process of a divorce or are beginning to think that’s where your marriage is headed, you may think that you have to put this on hold like so many other things right now. However, that is not the case.
