When you hear about couples getting divorced, you often hear about couples who experienced a long, highly contested court battle. You rarely hear stories about amicable divorces where couples were able to end their marriages peacefully and walk away able to effectively co-parent with one another. Achieving the latter is possible through mediation.
If you’re wondering why so many individuals describe divorce mediation as a more peaceful approach than litigation, their justification for doing so is pretty simple. When each spouse hires their own divorce attorney to represent them, the fight over who gets what assets or child custody can often get heated. When a divorcing couple hires a single mediator, their goal is simply to broker an agreement between the couple.
A Washington mediator’s goal is different from that of divorce attorneys. They aim to help a divorcing couple find common ground about how to split up their home or children. Since spouses are actively involved in the negotiation process during the mediation, they tend to be better about sticking to the decisions that are made. This means that couples are less apt to end up back in court hashing matters out in the years that follow.
Divorcing spouses often end up choosing to pursue mediation as opposed to litigation in hopes of minimizing the impact of the divorce on their kids. When attorneys get involved, it’s easy for any communication between spouses to quickly turn adversarial.
The stress that divorcing spouses are put under in having to deal with this can easily rub off on their kids. This can make children feel even more responsible for causing the demise of their parents’ marriage.
If a child has to attend court hearings and is asked by a judge which parent they wish to live with, then this can greatly affect their emotional state and development. A mediator can help divorcing spouses minimize the impact that their divorce has on their kids by keeping them focused on doing what’s in their best interests.
Many spouses who choose to mediate their divorce do so to reduce the emotional toll that it takes on them and their kids. Others pursue mediation because they can achieve a swifter and more cost-effective resolution than they would if they litigated it instead. A mediation attorney can delve deeper into these and other benefits associated with pursuing this alternative approach to getting your Everett divorce finalized.
