I am often asked how prevalent is mediation and ADR (alternative dispute resolution) in divorces. A recent ABA article surprised me with this statistic: 93% of divorcing couples utilized a method of Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) The details on most divorces are...
ChatGPT is all the rage these days. Ask it a question and it gives you an answer. But use it at your own risk, as some New York attorneys recently discovered. If you are unfamiliar, ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence that is largely free to use. It is still a work...
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...
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 recently published study by Cornell University indicated that “ugly” or unattractive people who are defendants in criminal trials are 22% more likely to be found guilty and are given longer sentences on average (22 months longer) than attractive people. ...
Part of being an effective mediator is having a good understanding about how people make decisions. After all, a mediator is assisting people in making decisions. We all like to think we are making rational decisions. However, that is not always the case (despite...
The NJ Administrative Office of the Courts court recently clarified the policy on whether the court must provide a spoken language interpreter for events which happen outside of the courthouse. Court assigned mediation, outside of foreclosure mediation, is typically...
Mediation is generally considered private and confidential (unlike litigation which is public), one of the main advantages as well as one reason why mediation is not more widely well known. HGTV is creating a new TV show to mediate dispute between neighbors and they...
This is one of the most common questions I get. The answer is no. Why? There are a number of reasons. Mediating a dispute is not about the law. Trials and motions are about the law. Mediating is about identifying the issues in dispute, fact finding and...
Yesterday, the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal released a report entitled “Interim Report on Problems Associated with Discovery”. Discovery is the pre-trial process where each side engaged in...
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
