What is Mediation?
By deborah lawson
The Uncoupled Life uses an inter-disciplinary, conference-style mediation in which participants come to their own decisions regarding what’s right for them and their future well-being as individuals.
In simple terms, mediation is a negotiated settlement conference. The “parties” (you) choose a “mediator” (us), who is a neutral/unbiased individual (or two). Our job is not to tell you what to do, but to help you decide what you can agree on, what you need help agreeing on, and how you can reach an agreement on everything else.
Our goal is to help you develop solutions that work for both of you, and hopefully, facilitate a peaceful, workable solution.
Importantly, we are not judges. We will not order you to do anything that you do not agree to do. We help you come up with your own options. If you cannot agree to a solution together during the process, you can always decide to proceed under another method, such as collaborative law or going to court. Our hope, however, is that with a little time and our help, you will be able to agree on all of the terms of your divorce.
In addition to typically being faster, less stressful, and less expensive than traditional litigation, in Harris County and many of the surrounding counties, the family court judges require everyone to go to mediation before actually going to court. Since mediation is less expensive than court, and has a very high likelihood of success, we think it makes sense to start with mediation, and hope that you will seriously consider this option. If it doesn’t work, you can always hire lawyers, and you’ve already got a lot of the hard/expensive work out of the way.