Long Island Center For Divorce Mediation

If you get a Legal Separation, you are not divorced. You are still legally married. While you can set up the Legal Separation to resolve all financial issues - such as child support, the house and maintenance -just like a divorce, staying married has one major advantage. In most cases, if you stay married, you can still stay on your Spouse's health insurance. Check with the HR admin though to make sure.

Divorce Mediation is divided into three parts. Part 1 includes the mediation sessions - at our Long Island Center for Divorce Mediation, we complete 98% of all mediations in one to three sessions - or one to three weeks. Part 2 is the Stipulation of Agreement - which takes around a month to be written and then edited by you. Part 3 is the Divorce Packet which takes about two weeks to be written and edited. Once complete, the Stipulation and Divorce Packet are sent to the courts. On Long Island, it takes from three to six months for a Judge to sign documents and for the documents to be entered with the County Clerk.

Divorce Litigation is necessary in a 'contested' divorce. In a 'contested' divorce, the Spouses cannot reach agreement. They need two lawyers and the Judge to resolve the issues between them. A 'contested' divorce is bitter and highly stressful. It is a struggle. Divorce Mediation can happen when the divorce is 'uncontested'. In an 'uncontested' divorce, the Spouses agree to work out an agreement. So choosing DIvorce Mediation is the faster, less expensive and less stressful way of reaching that agreement. When agreement is the desired outcome, rather than getting more from the other or getting even, Divorce Mediation is the preferred divorce method.

Divorce Mediation is in three parts. In Part 1, spouses sit down with the Divorce Mediator and negotiate all the important divorce issues - child custody and support, spousal support, financial settlements, property decisions, debt, pensions, health insurance, cars and credit cards and more. Once these issues have been negotiated and agreements are reached, it is time for Part 2 - at least in New York State. In Part 2, the Attorney on the Mediation team writes up the agreements that have been decided. This document is called the Stipulation of Settlement. In Part 3, the Attorney prepares the Divorce Packet, documents to be submitted to the Courts. Once the Spouses review the documents and sign them, these documents are submitted to the Courts. The couple is legally divorced when the Judge approves and signs the documents.