The Law Firm of Anthony J. Diaz

While parent coordination differs from mediation, it does utilize it, in addition to other alternative dispute resolution methods. The primary difference is that in the context of mediation, a mediator is a neutral third party, whereas a parenting coordinator is an impartial third party. This allows parent coordinators to remain impartial while siding with one party on a single issue. It also gives them the power to make some decisions.

Most states require that in order to file for divorce, you or your spouse must have resided there for a certain period of time. In most states, the minimum residency requirement to file for divorce is six months, but some states may require shorter or longer periods of time. If you and your spouse live in separate states, consider which state’s divorce laws would be more advantageous to your situation prior to choosing where to file.

In order to bring a legal action, you must have the standing to do so. Standing means you have a legal basis for bringing an action to the court. For divorce, the basis can be that the marriage is irretrievably broken. This is known as a no-fault divorce. All states allow no-fault divorce, but the requirements vary. Some states allow you to choose between a no-fault or fault-based divorces, such as adultery or abandonment.

If your spouse is serving in the military overseas, you can get divorced. The divorce should be filed where you and your spouse reside. Generally, when one is in the military, their state and county of residence are where they came from and not necessarily where they are living as part of their station. If your spouse is in a combat zone or is not allowed electronic communications, the divorce may take longer, and you may have to wait until they are home or at a station where they are allowed electronic communications. Often the courts will allow the military spouse to appear by phone or Zoom for any necessary hearings.

Debt in a divorce is divided much like assets. The first step is conducting a thorough accounting of all debts and assets. Debt that each spouse had coming into the marriage belongs to them alone, and shared debt can be divided equally or in combination with the distribution of assets as a way of balancing things out. For instance, one spouse may get to keep a high-value asset, like the house, but assume a greater amount of the debt.

You do not always have to go to court to get divorced, but you may be required to make an appearance. The best way to limit your time in court is to be open to negotiating with your spouse and attending mediation to resolve all outstanding issues outside of court. This may completely eliminate your need to appear in court, or you may simply need to make an appearance so that the court can grant your divorce request.

Spouses can agree on spousal support. If they are unable to come to an agreement, a judge can make a determination of how much spousal support will be issued based on the relative financial positioning of each spouse and factors of equity, such as whether one spouse put off a career to support the other or maintain their household, and if there are shared children that would preclude one spouse from promptly rejoining the workforce.

It is always important to ensure that your interests and rights are protected in a divorce. This is true even in mediation. A mediator serves as a neutral third party who can guide you to a mutually agreeable solution, but they can make no guarantees as to whether the agreement is actually fair to both sides, although that is a question they may explore, the agreement is ultimately up to the parties. For this reason, it is always advisable to have an attorney review any agreement reached through mediation before it is submitted to the court for approval. It can also be a good idea to have an attorney to consult with throughout the mediation negotiations or to represent you in them. Having a lawyer during mediation can ensure that you have an effective advocate, that your interests are represented, and that an equitable outcome is achieved. Having a lawyer can also create an emotional distance from the process which is helpful for some parties, even though they remain present.

Yes, most couples are surprised at the effectiveness of mediation after years of not being able to constructively reach decisions together. You and your spouse do not have to know what the outcome will be in order to justify trying mediation, you must only both be willing to try. If you and your spouse are both committed to reaching an outcome through mediation, you are likely to succeed. You will be guided through the mediation process by a neutral third party who is trained in conflict resolution and will ensure that everyone has space to be heard. The mediation process is custom-tailored to the needs of the parties involved, so you and your spouse have a great deal of control over the pace, timeline, and intensity of the process. This can also help the parties take time to decompress, reflect, and feel more comfortable coming to an agreement rather than feeling like they are handed one by a judge or pressured into accepting something on the spot.

Mediation is successful most of the time. Most parties who enter mediation are able to resolve all or some of their legal issues this way. Even couples who have never been able to agree on anything are often surprised to find that with the assistance of a neutral third-party facilitator they are financially able to arrive at a resolution. However, the great thing about mediation is that it is never a waste of time. There are usually hundreds of decisions that go into a divorce. Some of these decisions are small, and some are about who gets the house. The more of these decisions that you are able to make together in mediation, the less will have to be decided through expensive litigation in court. In other words, you do not have to start over in court if your mediation is not entirely successful. You will be able to take any progress that you made in mediation with you and the court will only have to spend time adjudicating the remaining issues that you could not decide on.

At your first session of divorce mediation, the mediator and the parties will establish what issues with regard to their divorce must be decided in mediation. The mediator will also talk through the order in which it makes sense to approach these issues and what information will be required for each decision so the parties will know what documents to collect and when to bring them to mediation. Parties may leave with a list of required items and some homework to do before the next session. They may also discuss the necessity of bringing in an accountant, appraiser, or other experts to assist in the decision-making process, or the parties may meet with experts to help them gather the necessary information and documentation before the next session of mediation. You will also likely create a schedule for your remaining sessions which can be adjusted as needed.

No, you can try mediation at any point in the divorce process. In fact, sometimes judges will even require couples to try mediation before allowing these cases to be litigated. The mediation process also does not prevent you from having a lawyer to represent your interests and advocate for you throughout the mediation process, or to whatever degree you choose. Some people simply consult with their attorney throughout the mediation process, choosing to handle the negotiations on their own, and then have their lawyer review any subsequent agreements that are drafted before they are submitted to the court. The degree of involvement of your legal counsel is up to you, and you do not have to choose one or the other. Your attorney can offer support in a variety of ways throughout the mediation process and afterward. If mediation is something you're considering it's a great thing to bring up with your attorney as they can provide more insight based on the specifics of your case.

Prenuptial agreements have a bit of a stigma attached to them, but in reality, they are just documents with important issues that should be addressed and resolved by both parties before entering into a legal marriage. Things like what property or debts will remain separate, how inheritance will be treated, and providing protection for the individual party's business or business interests can be addressed amicably through mediation. Mediation can allow this process to be productive and mutually beneficial, ensuring that both parties are able to voice their concerns and have their legal needs addressed. Mediation can be a safe and supportive way to facilitate healthy communication between both partners about their needs and to build a strong foundation for their future. It can also help couples develop the skills to effectively communicate and work through issues that arise in the future. It can also give both parties clarity on what is important to them and their partner in the relationship.

After couples have married, often the circumstances of their lives continue to change and evolve. Even if they entered into a prenuptial agreement before marriage, they may experience changes that are not covered in their initial agreement. For example, if they have children, if one or both spouses start a business, or if one of the spouses learns they will be receiving a large inheritance, they may need to create another agreement, known as a postnuptial agreement to resolve and clarify these terms. Additionally, a prenuptial agreement may be appropriate if no prenuptial agreement was made prior to the marriage. Often the realities of combining your financial life with another person do not hit until after the wedding. Mediation can provide a safe and supportive space for couples to reach agreements on any outstanding financial or legal complexities in their marriage so they both have clarity on how things stand and feel protected in the marriage.

When married couples with shared children divorce, determining custody is part of the divorce process. However, the process of determining custody is not as easy when it comes to unmarried couples. In some states, paternity must be established before any other rights and responsibilities can be determined with respect to the parents. A paternity mediation can allow co-parents to mutually acknowledge custody and make all decisions necessary to create the court-required parenting plan. Mediation can help guide co-parents to mutually-beneficial solutions while using conflict-resolution tactics and helping them to focus on what is in the best interest of the child or children. If the mediation is successful, the agreement can be reached, drafted, and submitted to the court for approval. Provided it is in the best interest of the child, the court will approve the agreement and order it into effect. It also keeps all matters related to the mediation private, instead of public records.

Mediation can be used to establish paternity as well as all accompanying rights and responsibilities. Many people may prefer to keep matters related to paternity private, and going to court makes everything a matter of public record. Mediation ensures that everything is kept confidential and can provide a supportive environment for co-parents to establish paternity as well as child support payments, and to negotiate all terms of their court-ordered parenting agreement. Mediation can help make a highly emotional process more regulated, by utilizing a neutral third party who is trained in conflict resolution. When all matters relating to paternity and custody can be resolved through mediation, there is often no need to go to court. The agreement can simply be drafted, reviewed by the parties' lawyers, and submitted to the court for approval. This can make the situation more amicable, laying the foundation for a healthier co-parenting relationship moving forward.

Military families deal with the same issues that other couples face, but matters like child custody can become far more complex and difficult to figure out when one or both parents are in the military and subject to long-term deployments or being called on to report for duty with little to no notice. Military families can make child care plans appointing short-term and long-term childcare options in case one or both of them has to leave. The childcare plan should also include all details relating to the child's care. Mediation can help military families establish an appropriate agreement and ensure that proper care is in place for their child. Mediation can also help military families who are dealing with separation or divorce, or who need to negotiate custody or visitation schedules for their shared children. Any family law matter can be facilitated with the help of a mediator who can keep the matter out of court and allow it to be handled as amicably as possible.

Spousal support can be modified after the initial order is issued. You must be able to demonstrate a need for modification based on a change in circumstances. For instance, if the payor has had a change in income and can no longer afford the agreed-upon amount of support, or the recipient has remarried or received a windfall sum of money, this would provide grounds for a modification.

Although most people think of spousal support as a regularly occurring payment, it can come in various forms, including a lump sum. As an alternative to traditional spousal support, other assets and debts may be allocated to provide an equivalent benefit, such as keeping the house or not having to take on any of the shared debt.

Although you may feel you have very good reason to stop making spousal support payments, there are generally only two situations in which this is permissible. The first is when the payor-spouse has died and the second is when the recipient-spouse has remarried. If you do not fall into either of these categories, talk to a lawyer to learn if other exceptions may apply or if you can file for a modification.

Yes, there are different types of spousal support available depending on your needs. Spousal support may be ordered temporarily or permanently. It may be ordered just for the duration of the trial, or for any amount of time afterward. It can be intended to rehabilitate the spouse temporarily to get them employable and self-sufficient, or as a means of supporting them for life depending on their age, needs, and abilities.

Spouses can agree on spousal support. If they are unable to come to an agreement, a judge can make a determination of how much spousal support will be issued based on the relative financial positioning of each spouse and factors of equity, such as whether one spouse put off a career to support the other or maintain their household, and if there are shared children that would preclude one spouse from promptly rejoining the workforce.

You do not always have to go to court to get divorced, but you may be required to make an appearance. The best way to limit your time in court is to be open to negotiating with your spouse and attending mediation to resolve all outstanding issues outside of court. This may completely eliminate your need to appear in court, or you may simply need to make an appearance so that the court can grant your divorce request.

Debt in a divorce is divided much like assets. The first step is conducting a thorough accounting of all debts and assets. Debt that each spouse had coming into the marriage belongs to them alone, and shared debt can be divided equally or in combination with the distribution of assets as a way of balancing things out. For instance, one spouse may get to keep a high value asset, like the house, but assume a greater amount of the debt.

You may get to keep your house in the divorce, depending on the other assets in your estate and how they can be fairly divided. You may be able to keep the house if your spouse can receive an equivalent amount of assets, or you may be able to purchase their share. You are also more likely to keep the house if you have shared children, are the custodial parent, and will have sufficient assets to keep and maintain it after the divorce.

The cost of your divorce will depend on several factors like whether you are retaining an attorney, whether it is contested or uncontested, and whether you are proceeding on no-fault or fault-based grounds. The size of your estate matters. The more time you spend in court, the more your divorce will cost. If you are able to limit your time in court, by utilizing collaborative divorce methods and mediation, you can control the cost.

Many factors influence the divorce timeline, including the assets involved and whether there are shared children. The main factor is whether or not a divorce is fault-based. If no time has to be spent in court assessing the grounds for divorce, it will move along quickly. An uncontested, no-fault divorce may take three months while a contested, fault-based divorce may take over a year.

In order to bring a legal action, you must have standing to do so. Standing means you have a legal basis for bringing an action in court. For divorce, the basis can be that the marriage is irretrievably broken. This is known as a no-fault divorce. All states allow no-fault divorce, but the requirements vary. Some states allow you to choose between a no-fault or fault-based divorce, such as adultery or abandonment.

Most states require that in order to file for divorce, you or your spouse must have resided there for a certain period of time. In most states, the minimum residency requirement to file for divorce is six months, but some states may require shorter or longer periods of time. If you and your spouse live in separate states, consider which state’s divorce laws would be more advantageous to your situation prior to choosing where to file.

Filing for divorce requires completing necessary paperwork and filing it at a local court. The paperwork requirements vary from state to state, but all divorces will require something to be filed that states your desire to dissolve your marriage and initiates the proceedings. The complaint must be delivered directly to your spouse. Service of process is a constitutional right; if it is not completed properly, the case will not proceed.

The biggest potential drawback to collaborative divorce is that if the process is not successful, both of the couples' lawyers must step down. This means that the couple will essentially have to re-start the divorce process from scratch with new lawyers and a different strategy. For this reason, if either partner is opposed to the process or committed to not reaching a resolution, collaborative divorce is not likely a good option.

Yes, in almost all cases mediation is faster than a traditional divorce. When it comes to mediation, the process can be catered to the individual parties and their needs. They can call in necessary experts, work to their own timeline, and ensure that they have dedicated attention focused on helping them resolve their issues. Some divorces can be mediated in as few as two three-hour-long sessions, while others may take several sessions over the course of a few weeks or months, depending on how the parties wish to space out the process. This is simultaneously a much quicker and more relaxed pace than the court process, which can take one to two years to adjudicate a contentious divorce, and which involves many long periods of uncontrollable waiting for court dates filled with costly litigation. Even in highly complex cases, mediation generally proves much quicker and more cost-effective than going to court.

Mediation can also be used in a divorce, provided both parties are willing to participate. The parties may elect to use a solo mediator, or to each have an attorney who will advocate for them and represent their interests while the mediator helps implement conflict-resolution tactics and guides them toward mutually-beneficial solutions. Parties who have few matters to decide can benefit as much as parties with complex divorces and plenty of matters to settle. For the former, mediation can be a comparably fast, productive, and amicable way to wrap up loose ends and dissolve the marriage as quickly as possible while avoiding going to court. For the latter, mediation can be a way of keeping information relating to their marriage private instead of a matter of public record and can help keep costs down by reaching resolutions on as many issues as possible without dealing with costly and high-stakes litigation. Those with shared children often find the process beneficial.

One of the biggest misconceptions about divorce is that it has to involve a courtroom. While it is certainly true that many divorces do end up in court and that contentious litigation may be involved, this is not the only way. In fact, a divorce only has to go to court and have any matters decided by a judge if the parties involved are not able to come to a divorce agreement on their own. A lot is involved in a divorce, and many decisions must be made to effectively dissolve a marriage, including asset and debt distribution, child custody and visitation, and spousal support. A mediator can help you and your spouse try and arrive at mutually-agreeable decisions on these issues and draft a divorce agreement for you. You can have lawyers present and review the agreement to ensure it equitably represents both of your interests. The agreement can then be submitted to the court for approval and will be put into effect just like any other divorce order except without going to court.

Mediation is always a legal alternative to court and may be utilized by married or unmarried couples. Mediation is a great option for unmarried couples who have been living together, as the court is really not equipped to deal with litigating the intricacies of break-ups, even when the relationship was comparable to marriage in all other ways. Legally, when a couple who is living together breaks up, each is entitled to the assets in their own name. There is no legal help when it comes to financial support and things can get complicated when the partners owned a house and share assets, or if they had children. Mediation provides a productive and supportive means of resolving these issues and working towards equitable solutions. It gives the parties the ability to negotiate the division of their assets, such as if they own unequal shares of their home, and they can negotiate support for one of the partners if necessary and custody and visitation decisions for any children.

Mediation can be very effective when it comes to establishing, negotiating, enforcing, or dissolving a cohabitation agreement. When two people live together, either platonically or romantically, it is important to have clear expectations with regard to roles and responsibilities. Mediation can help both parties to productively communicate their needs and expectations and draft a legally-enforceable agreement that can help them easily navigate the process of living together. A cohabitation agreement can provide things such as if rent is to be paid, if so, when, and in what amount, and who is responsible for payment of utilities, property maintenance, and any other rules that need to be established. This can allow both parties to feel heard, have their needs addressed, and enter a co-living situation with a clear understanding of what is expected of them. If the couple is romantically involved, the agreement also may define and protect ownership of separately-owned assets.

In most cases, the inheritance will be treated as a separate asset belonging to the spouse who received it, even if it was acquired during the course of the marriage. However, if there was a commingling of the inheritance funds with marital funds, the inheritance may be subject to equitable distribution. For instance, if one spouse received an inheritance and deposited it in a joint account that they shared with their spouse.

Many states use the theory of equitable distribution when it comes to dissolving a marriage and distributing the assets. Unlike community property states, which generally divide marital property 50-50, states that use equitable distribution attempt to divide assets based on a number of factors that are meant to result in a fair division of assets. Sometimes this division is still close to 50-50, but it does not have to be. Couples give up a lot of control when they step into the courtroom and ask a judge to decide how to divide their property. Equitable distribution allows the parties to decide how to divide up their assets and debts. In addition to a mediator, parties may have independent representation, and experts such as accountants may also be called upon to ensure the process is as thorough and fair as possible. Once the parties reach a decision, it can be drafted into an agreement and submitted to the court for approval, it will then be ordered.

Some states require couples to attempt collaborative divorce or mediation prior to coming to court, however, it is not always the best fit for a couple's needs. Collaborative divorce must be an honest and equitable process, so couples with a history of domestic violence may not benefit. Additionally, there is little point in attempting this method if both parties are not open to reaching a resolution.

Collaborative divorce allows spouses to work together with the help of attorneys, and perhaps a mediator, to negotiate mutually-agreeable divorce terms outside of a courtroom. This results in a faster and more cost-effective divorce process and also allows both spouses maximum amount of control over the outcome. Once an agreement has been reached, it can be submitted to the court for approval, essentially bypassing the courtroom.