Mediate Michigan

Traditionally couples divorce as adversaries, hiring separate attorneys to wrangle over child custody and support, maintenance, assets and anything else they care about, even the dog. It’s high stakes poker. Ante up: legal costs, kids, stress.

But there’s another way. Increasingly couples are turning to divorce mediation as a realistic and healthier alternative. A couple meets with a mediator to hammer out an agreement covering all the terms of their divorce, including finances and child custody. This usually takes six to 10 sessions and costs roughly $5,000. As a litigator and mediator I prefer to mediate, if appropriate. It’s faster, cheaper and, most importantly, less acrimonious, which is less damaging, not just for a couple, but also their children.

The problem for some — and you know who you are — is that the idea of mediation still carries with it the perception that it’s too touchy-feely to work; there’s the whiff of Birkenstocks and herbal tea. Soon you’ll be holding hands and chanting Om.

via Joanne Naiman: Eight Myths of Divorce Mediation.