What Is Mediation? Why Am I Being Ordered to It?

In family law, once you file your petition for divorce, during that sixty days, if you are not able to agree on a settlement or come to a settlement, whether it's property, whether it's child support, whether it's dividing the debts, who gets the house, then what's going to happen is, in most instances, the court is going to order you a mediation. A mediation is a process by which both parties, along with their attorneys, sit down with a neutral third party, who oftentimes is a lawyer, and in some instances can be a former judge, who will then mediate the case. That person will kind of go back and forth between the parties and their attorneys, and see if they can't work out some of the disputes that have occurred with regards to property settlements, with regards to child support, with regards to custody of the kids, et cetera. That's just a vehicle the court system has put in place to try and resolve cases outside of the courts. As you know, the courts are inundated with cases constantly, and there are backlogs because there are so many divorce cases and so many litigation cases. So they send you to this mediation process to help you resolve your disputes. In most instances, those disputes are resolved. Very seldom will you have a divorce case that will go to trial; I think it may be between the numbers of maybe five to ten percent of all divorce cases become full-blown trials. So it gets resolved during this mediation process which is very cost-effective, because if you go to trial and you take a case, a divorce case and start a litigation process through discovery, depositions, et cetera, your case can be fifty, sixty thousand dollars and in some instances, well over a hundred thousand dollars, just to get a divorce.


Private Consultation

Please fill out the form below and we will contact you shortly.

  • The Ashmore Law Firm, P.C.
  • 3636 Maple Avenue
    Dallas, TX 75219
  • Phone: 214-559-7202
  • Fax: 214-520-1550
  • View Map

Videos

View All >

News

View All >

FAQs

Family Law

View All >

This web site is designed for general information only. The information presented at this site should not be construed to be formal legal advice nor the formation of a lawyer/client relationship.

©2012 The Ashmore Law Firm, P.C., All Rights Reserved, Reproduced with Permission Privacy Policy
Attorney web design by Foster Web Marketing, the best attorney website design solution on the Web offering search engine optimization for attorneys, lawyer website design, video for attorneys, and more.
Get SEO Tips from The Attorney Internet Marketing Blog