Court System Versus Mediation

Court System Versus MediationThe California Family law Court system is designed to be an adversarial system. Many people hire attorneys, and many people represent themselves in court. When a couple has family law issues they cannot resolve themselves, they set a hearing at court and present them to a judge who will make orders that resolve the issues.

Unfortunately, the court system is required to follow the California family laws, and the procedural rules of the courts. This means that one or both of the people may not like the solutions the judge orders. Additionally, litigation is extremely expensive, time consuming and usually unpleasant. Court hearings are often delayed, or rescheduled. The couple’s divorce and life is put on hold while they wait for a decision from a judge.

Nearly all of the filings in family law courts are open and viewable to the public. Did you know your court documents can be reviewed by your children when they reach adulthood?

We provide an alternative to this frustrating and costly experience. We offer private mediation to eliminate the need to go to court and hope you get your issues resolved the way you want them to be resolved. Private mediation allows you to maintain control over your decisions, it allows you more flexibility to creatively divide your assets, debts and it helps you create an effective child sharing plan for your children. You do not have to put your life into the hands of court professionals, you can reach an agreement together with our expertise and skills and you can take as long as you want if you need extra time to resolve the troublesome issues. We also walk you through the forms that to put down your agreements, which we turn into your divorce agreement (marital settlement agreement), which we will file for you. With very limited exceptions, your mediated agreement will be rubber-stamped by the court system.

When mediation is not done by a family legal professional, it can cause you major problems in the future if you do not use a skilled and experienced family law attorney who can assist you with decisions related to support or division of assets.

Our private mediation includes mediation with Jefferson Stacer, a family law attorney with over 35 years of family law experience. He has designed the forms for you to use that are easy to follow and less expensive than many other mediation programs.

We offer free workshops to answer your questions while you are resolving your divorce and child issues and we offer extended mediation sessions at a discounted rate, if you should need additional time with Attorney Stacer.