Hi, I am Lori Barkus, a family law attorney. And my Colorado and Florida-based law firm helps women have a successful divorce. Today, I’d like to talk to you about mediation. It’s a popular topic. Many people say, “I’m getting divorced. I was told to go to a mediator. My spouse is saying, let’s hire a mediator. It’ll be easier and cheaper, and we can get through the whole process.” Let’s talk about what mediation is. It’s a voluntary process. You have one neutral person who may or may not be a lawyer but cannot and should not be giving you any legal advice. So, it is a great way to keep costs down. It is a low-conflict setting where you can talk through and reach agreements. It can work very, very well for people.
But keep in mind what you need to do. First, you need legal advice; we’ll discuss that in a second. You’ll also be asked to make settlement offers, usually sitting across the table from your spouse or, in this day and age, maybe in a Zoom conference. Are you comfortable doing that? It’s a great option if you feel free of pressure or pressure from your spouse.
Please make sure you have all the information you need. People ask me about mediation, but they need help understanding their finances. They need help understanding certain things, so seeing how it will work is hard. It might work for someone who doesn’t want you to know their finances, which sometimes happens with mediation and can be very concerning. So, what I recommend is anybody that’s going to mediation, thinking about it, you do need to have a consultation with an attorney, not an attorney who’s trying to get you to change your mind or hire that person and pay them a lot of money, but somebody who will give you advice.
We have a specific service for people going through mediation, where we help prepare you for it. We walk you through the process. We discuss what settlement should look like and what’s reasonable and give you the information people need when they go into mediation. So, it’s a way to help you be more successful. And we also have a service package to support you during the process. So, you can go through the process with your spouse, but you have somebody there to ask questions if things don’t go well or you’re concerned.
I know there are many questions about mediation, so could you ask me your questions? Go to our website at barkuslaw.com, and click on the contact form. Then, please send us an email. Please let us know what you think about this and your questions about mediation. Thanks so much, and have a great day.