How Mediation Differs from Litigation During a Kentucky Divorce
Filing for divorce is undoubtedly one of the hardest decisions you might ever have to make. While nothing can take away the pain of ending your marriage, you can certainly make the process less stressful by choosing mediation over litigation.
How Does Mediation Work in a Kentucky Divorce?
Divorce mediation is a cooperative process in which you and your spouse can work together with the help of a neutral mediator to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome. Instead of fighting it out in court, you can talk to each other privately and resolve your differences on key issues like child custody, visitation, alimony, and child support and reach an agreement that can benefit all the parties involved – especially your children.
Why Mediation Can Be a Better Choice than Litigation in a Kentucky Divorce
Non-Adversarial
Litigation is a confrontational and adversarial process as it pits you and your spouse against each other. Your lawyer might question your spouse’s allegations against you (if it is a fault divorce) and try to blame them for ending the marriage. Your spouse’s lawyer might try to do the same to pin the blame on you. As a result, you and your spouse might end up with an even more damaged relationship at the end of the proceeding.
Mediation, on the other hand, is collaborative and non-adversarial by design. You and your spouse can candidly discuss each other’s needs, concerns, and apprehensions and find a solution with the assistance of the mediator. Nobody wins and nobody loses, as both of you might have to compromise on certain issues in order to achieve a positive outcome.
Privacy
If your divorce case goes to trial, you can expect the most intimate details of your marriage to be discussed publicly. Since the whole process is public, you cannot expect to keep anything confidential.
With mediation, you can prevent these intimate details from being spilled out in public, as it is a closed-door process. The only parties that are involved are you, your lawyer, your spouse, their lawyer, and the mediator. Stemming from this, you can afford to settle your issues privately.
Easier on Children
The animosity and bitterness resulting from a divorce proceeding can take a heavy toll on children and leave them scarred for life. With mediation, you can avoid conflicts to a significant extent, which can make it easier for your children to deal with the fact that their parents are no longer together.
Post-Divorce Stability
One of the problems with litigation is that it can exacerbate the existing differences between you and your spouse and make it harder for you to have a civil, mutually respectful relationship after the divorce. As a result, every time there is a disagreement regarding alimony, child support, or any other post-divorce issue, you and your spouse might resort to litigation.
With mediation, you can end your marriage in a dignified and civil manner. It allows you to have a stable co-parenting relationship with your spouse, which can be crucial for your children’s wellbeing.
Saves Time and Money
It is not uncommon for divorce proceedings to drag on for several months or even years in some cases where a bitter court battle takes place. In addition to the continued stress it may cause for you and the kids, litigation will also involve higher costs. Divorce lawyers in Kentucky are likely to charge according to the time they spend on your case. Based on this, the longer the process drags on, the more expensive it can get.
With mediation, you can wrap things up more quickly in most cases as the collaborative nature of the process allows you to resolve your disputes and achieve your goals on your own timetable rather than following a court schedule. Moreover, you and your ex-spouse can save a great deal of money.
Control over the Outcome
Once your case goes to court, you and your spouse have no control over the outcome. It is up to the judge to make a decision based on the evidence presented and the arguments made by both sides.
With mediation, you and your spouse not only have control over the process itself but also over the outcome. You can set your own terms, come up with out-of-the-box solutions that are unlikely to be devised inside of a courtroom, and achieve the outcome that works best for both parties.
Looking to End Your Marriage through Mediation? We Can Help
At John H. Ruby & Associates, we provide mediation for couples who want to end their marriage with a minimal amount of stress and at a fraction of the cost of traditional litigation. Divorce mediation is not for everyone, however. Since this is a cooperative process, the spouses must be willing to work together toward a more beneficial outcome for both parties, and it may not be the right approach in some cases.
To find out if divorce mediation might work for you, call us today at 502-895-2626 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation with a member of our legal team.