Michele F. Lowrance spent 20 years on the bench as a judge in Illinois family court. After her retirement, she became a divorce mediator. Judges and mediators generally see people on their worst days — who wants to be in court or in mediation? Here’s...
The Atlantic recently published an article on “The Divorce Gap” highlighting the inequities that a court-based divorce process can often result in. When one household is converted into two, there is often not enough money to support both. Mothers...
NJ has a long-standing policy of terminating alimony when the recipient spouse remarries. But what happens when a recipient does not remarry but cohabits with another person in a romantic relationship? And what happens if that cohabitation relationship ends? The NJ...
Here is today’s Daily Zen tweet: Most of the great problems of life are never resolved. They’re just outgrown. — Carl Jung I started to ponder this in terms of my divorce mediation clients. Is this true? Do my clients just outgrow their problems or are they...
The late Robin Williams was a comedic genius beloved by just about everyone. Mental illness probably contributed to his genius (and his ultimate downfall), but to be a great comic you need to well understand humans and human tendencies. A recent article highlighted...
Yesterday, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in the case of Anthony C. Major v. Julie Maguire. The case dealt with grandparents of a child (the parents of the father) who were petitioning the court for visitation rights to see their grandchild....
A mediated divorce often costs less than 1/3rd of a litigated divorce
Mediation can finalize a divorce in much less time than litigation -- months versus years
You lose none of your rights by mediating
Mediation is confidential
Make decisions about your future for yourself
Parties are more satisfied with terms they agree to in mediation than terms imposed by a court
Agreements obtained through mediation are far less likely to end up back in court
Mediation is a forward-looking process (where do you go from here)
Mediation can be used to resolve many types of disputes, including the dissolutions of gay and lesbian (same-sex) relationships, civil unions, domestic partnerships and commercial and community disputes
Mediation allows you to get on with your life more quickly
