If you and your spouse are in agreement about the fact that you want to get a legal separation with minimal pain, time and expense, mediation should certainly be your preferred choice.

In the mediation process you will have total control of all the decisions which should be part of your Agreement, and those decisions will of course be tailored to your needs and those of your family.

this is how the process works:

Spouses meet together with the mediator who is there to help them have a conversation and work out all the different issues that need to be included in their legal separation agreement.

In these sessions which usually last 1 ½ to 2 hours, the points to be worked out are:

• Where each party is going to live
• Division of assets (also called Equitable Distribution of Marital Property)
• Spousal support (formerly called Alimony)
• Child Support
• Legal Custody: how decisions are made for their children
• Physical Custody and Parenting agreements: where the children live, and how the parents will share weekdays, weekends, holidays and vacations with their children
• Decisions about Health Care and Life Insurance Plans
• Decisions that pertain to your individual situation

Depending on the number and complexity of the points that need to be worked out, it will take 3 to 6 sessions to get through all the issues. Sessions can be scheduled weekly or at greater intervals, dependent on what is most convenient for both of you and how quickly you want to complete the process. The mediator will guide you through all the different points of your agreement, raise questions to clarify some of those points, answer questions you may have, and help you generate options that will lead you to solutions.

All the decisions made by both of you will be included in your Separation Agreement, also called Settlement Agreement. This document will then be signed by you and notarized. When you and your spouse are ready to file for divorce, the attorney will file the appropriate documents in the court.

Mediation = Making Your Own Decisions:

In divorce mediation, with the help of your mediator,  you and your spouse can  create your own separation agreement by making decisions  that best suit your needs and those of your family. When you are going through a separation, no one else knows what feels comfortable to you and/or the agreements that you can live with.

Get Your FREE Copy of Jennifer’s
12 Critical Mistakes to Avoid When Considering a Separation or Divorce!!

If you have any questions or concerns about Mediation,
or would like to schedule a no fee mediation consultation,
please don’t hesitate to contact me today!

 

jennifer safian

divorce and family mediator

phone: (917) 881-5206

email: jpsafian@gmail.com

divorce & family mediation,

upper east side of manhattan, nyc,

new york, ny

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