Preserve Relationships

Throughout the mediation process we use problem solving techniques that often help avoid conflict in the future. We use ground rules and create a safe environment for participants to work through difficult issues in a respectful, private and constructive process. With a professional third party in the room, clients often find ways to communicate more effectively during the mediation process. In particular, when participants have children and/or ongoing relationships, they have an opportunity to put their best foot forward during a difficult time rather than choosing the more adversarial court litigation process.

Placing a dollar value on a destroyed relationship is impossible. Confrontational court battles damage important relationships. Since litigation often degenerates into something resembling warfare. In mediation, the principals sit together, communicate about their dispute and collaborate on a resolution. Because the parties work together on a solution in a non-adversarial process, there is a greater likelihood of maintaining a working relationship even though the marriage has ended. Individuals in conflict have the opportunity to preserve or even improve their working and/or co-parenting relationship as a result of using mediation.

Mediation reduces the emotional cost of resolving disputes. Litigation is focused on the dispute. The objective of the litigation process is to determine who did what to whom. Spending time and energy pointing the finger or reveling in fault and blame is emotionally destructive. In mediation, the focus is on finding solutions to establish a plan of action for the future.

In an adversarial proceeding, each party is driven to prove that the other side is wrong through a series of attacks and counterattacks. Each party works to discredit the other in order to ‘win the case’. In mediation, the parties communicate about ways to move forward and find solutions to their problems. Mediation by its very nature involves working together, even if the parties don’t agree, the process is inherently less emotionally taxing than engaging in battle, which is the hallmark of litigation.

Mediation preserves relationships so that you may focus on your future.