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Frequently Asked Questions
How Does Divorce Mediation Work?
What are the Benefits of Using a Mediator?
When is a Good Time to Start Mediation?
How Long Does It Take?
Why is a Mediator Necessary?
How Much Child Support Will I Have to Pay or Receive?
What is the Massachusetts Law on Alimony?
Are Mediation Sessions Confidential?
Does Diane Neumann & Associates Require a Retainer?
What does Divorce Mediation Cost?
Will I Get A Better Settlement In Court?
Do I Still Need Another Lawyer?
Is There any Risk in Using Divorce Mediation?
How Does Divorce Mediation Work?
Mediation is an efficient and inexpensive procedure for reaching fair decisions. An impartial mediator assists two individuals to make fair and equitable agreements.
The vast majority of divorcing people do not know about the financial and legal aspects of divorce. Your mediator will insure that you receive the financial and legal information necessary to create the best possible settlement suited to your individual needs.
At the end of the mediation, the mediator prepares the Divorce Agreement, which is filed with the Massachusetts Family and Probate court.
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What are the Benefits of Using a Mediator?
The benefits of using a Diane Neumann & Associates mediator for your divorce include:
- A mediator who will look out for your best interests
- Significant cost savings and reduced tax liabilities
- An explanation of finances and legal issues, so that each person fully understands the consequences of each decision
- The ability to negotiate a settlement within a cooperative atmosphere
- Greater control over your decisions
- Protection of the rights and interests of each individual
- Privacy as you work out an agreement
- Assistance in keeping emotions from financial decisions
- A procedure for gathering the required legal information
- Agreements that are understood by each person and will continue throughout the life of the agreement
Mediation gives you the option to privately negotiate a settlement without the large investment of time, money and emotion that adversarial divorces almost always require.
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When is a Good Time to Start Mediation?
You may use our services before or after you separate.
We recommend that you start divorce mediation prior to your separation, in order that the mediator may help you to make good decisions and to avoid mistakes. For example, your mediator will create the best temporary parenting arrangement for you and your child; your mediator will determine the correct amount of child support according to the Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines; and your mediator will assist in determining responsibility for rent and mortgage payments, as well as all other expenses.
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How Long Does Mediation Take?
Several factors influence how long it will take to reach a final settlement.
- The number and complexity of assets and liabilities
- Your understanding of choices and options for assets, liabilities, insurances and support
- The way you each view legal and physical custody
- The ability of you and your spouse to agree
The length of time is determined by the divorcing couple. The Family and Probate Court will not intervene in a private mediation, rather, the court will review the settlement at the court hearing. Once finalized, your agreements regarding assets and liabilities are lasting and final, and your agreements regarding support may be modified without a requirement to return to divorce court.
In every case, a mediated divorce settlement is reached in less time and with less acrimony than in attorney-controlled collaborative or adversarial negotiations.
By comparison, an adversarial divorce can easily take two or more years before the final settlement is hammered out, and even once finalized, the unfair results often create a situation in which one or both parties return to the Family and Probate Court to modify the terms of their settlement.
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Why Is a Mediator Necessary?
There are two main reasons:
First, most individuals do not have the specific knowledge necessary for making fully informed decisions about the financial and legal aspects of divorce. The mediators at Diane Neumann & Associates have all of the knowledge that is required to reach the best settlement.
Second, even in the best of circumstances, the end of a significant relationship involves such intense emotions that it is difficult for two people to resolve issues on their own. Your mediator is a professional who can allow each person to have their feelings, without those feelings spilling over and jeopardizing your ability to reach fair agreements.
A frequent observation is that mediation is that mediation is similar to a do-it-yourself divorce in that you and your spouse make the final decisions, but have the security of a professional who will look out for your best interests.
The danger in drafting your own divorce agreement is that the divorce court judge will almost certainly reject the document, unless you happen to be familiar with the rules and regulations of the court. Your mediator will draft a divorce agreement that is acceptable to the court, and insure that your interests and goals are reflected in that settlement.
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How much child support will I have to pay or receive?
Every state has, by statute, child support guidelines. Your mediator at Diane Neumann & Associates will provide this important information to you.
Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines
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What is the Massachusetts Law on Alimony?
Your mediator will provide this vital information.
Massachusetts Alimony Statute
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Are Sessions Confidential?
All mediation sessions are fully confidential, according to Massachusetts State Law, Chapter 233, Section 23c, which provides for the mediator/client legal privilege.
Massachusetts State Law, Chapter 233, Section 23c
"All memoranda, and other work product prepared by a mediator and a mediator's case files shall be confidential and not subject to disclosure in any judicial or administrative proceeding involving any of the parties to any mediation to which such materials apply. Any communication made in the course of and relating to the subject matter of any mediation and which is made in the presence of such mediator by any participant, mediator or other person shall be a confidential communication and not subject to disclosure in any judicial or administrative proceeding; provided, however, that the provisions of this section shall not apply to the mediation of labor disputes.
"For the purposes of this section a "mediator" shall mean a person not a party to a dispute who enters into a written agreement with the parties to assist them in resolving their disputes and has completed at least thirty hours of training in mediation and who either has four years of professional experience as a mediator or is accountable to a dispute resolution organization which has been in existence for at least three years or one who has been appointed to mediate by a judicial or governmental body."
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Does the Firm of Diane & Associates Require a Retainer?
Unlike other mediators and divorce attorneys, Diane Neumann & Associates does not require a retainer from our clients. Instead, payments for mediation are due after the service has been provided, avoiding prohibitive up front costs. Not having to pay a retainer allows you to have maximum control over your costs.
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What Does Divorce Mediation Cost?
Mediation costs are based on an hourly fee. The per hour charge is the fee for both of you. Because you are hiring one professional instead of two, and because the process is direct and efficient, the cost of a mediated divorce will be substantially less than hiring two separate divorce lawyers. The mediator's goal is to help you save time and money; this may not be the goal of other professionals.
The time involved in reaching a fully-informed and durable divorce settlement depends on several factors. Please call to speak with a mediator (617-926-9100), who will better help you understand the costs at our firm.
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Will I Get a Better Settlement If I Go To Court?
A divorcing man woman once asked me, “Won’t I get the entire house if I go to court and tell the judge what my husband did?” At another time a male client asked me, “Wouldn't the judge see that it is unfair that the State would make me pay that much child support to my ex-wife?”
Men and women who ask these questions have never appeared in divorce court. The evidence allowed in divorce court is limited to legal standards. The court decision is usually decided by a statute that is incomprehensible to those of you not versed in “the law.” The goals of the judge often differ radically from yours.
The reality of a divorce court trial is that most litigants walk out of the courtroom feeling as if they have just been run over by a truck. The winner often finds his or her enthusiasm dampened by the warning they hear from their lawyer to prepare for the next legal round, when their soon-to-be-ex-spouse will appeal the judge’s decision. An appeal means another trial, more money, and, of course, the emotional trauma that seems to have no end.
Mediation offers a common-sense, less expensive and less traumatic way to reach the best divorce settlement possible.
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Do I Still Need Another Lawyer?
You do not need another attorney, as the mediators at Diane Neumann & Associates are attorneys. Although you are always free to hire another lawyer, you do not need to do so. If you choose to work with another attorney, your mediator will help you to work with that attorney during the mediation.
You may choose to work with another therapist; however, Dr. Cooper is available to our clients.
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Is There Any Risk in Using Mediation?
The only risk in using mediation occurs if you do not have a highly skilled and experienced mediator. If you choose a mediator who is less than the best professional, you may well end up with an agreement that is unfair.
You do not give up any rights in mediation. You are always free to pursue other legal remedies. Remember, mediation is a voluntary process that allows you to reach a fair settlement.
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