Hands down, in a family case, mediation beats litigation every time. Why is that you ask? Well I’m going to tell you. First, mediation is much less expensive than litigation. The parties generally split the cost of a mediator, who is employed by both parties for relatively short mediation sessions. Those proceedings can last from a half-day, to a few days or so, depending upon the nature and complexity of the issues. The entire process is much less adversarial. It is conducted in an informal atmosphere rather than a cold courtroom and neither side needs a lawyer. Mediation is also much faster than litigation. You could be litigating for years in a family law case. I have one family law case in litigation that has been pending since 1997.
Mediation is also better because you don’t have a stranger making decisions about you and your family. Instead, you are empowering yourselves to reach a mutually acceptable compromise with the help of an expert in negotiations. Mediation is much better at preserving and strengthening relationships, while litigation tends to destroy those relationships. Since you will most likely be dealing with the child’s other parent until the child turns 18, it is important to keep the lines of communication open. Mediation accomplishes this by permitting each side the opportunity to vent and get whatever may be bothering the person off his or her chest. And agreements that are made by compromise are a lot easier to enforce than court judgments. As any lawyer will tell you, there is a big difference between obtaining a court order and enforcing one.
Next, litigation is public, whereas mediation proceedings are confidential. In mediation, unlike litigation, your private and personal information, including your finances, are not made available in the public record for anybody to see.
The fact is that more than 90 percent of cases settle before trial anyway. The question you have to ask yourself is whether it is better to pay a lawyer thousands and thousands of dollars for a case that will most likely resolve itself at the end of the day through negotiation or try to negotiate the case yourself first. Even if you are not able to resolve all of the issues through mediation, you are often able to resolve some of the issues and narrow down the others. Don’t you owe it to your children to at least try to resolve the matter amicably?
For questions about United Mediation Services, feel free to call 661-257-8877.