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A Divorce mediation agreement is not legally binding

8/22/2016

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A divorce mediation agreement, also called a Memorandum of Understanding, is not a legally binding document.  The agreements you reach in divorce mediation are made in good faith.  However, you do have the option to tweak the document after you complete mediation and before you get to court to finalize your divorce.  Upon further review, you may want to make minor changes.  For example, you might increase the amount each parent is responsible for regarding the children’s college education cost, decrease the length of alimony by a year, divide your IRA instead of your 401(k) or switch around the days of which parent have the kids on which days.  You have the option to do any and all of these things after you leave mediation and before your divorce is finalized in court. 

The concern some people have is what if all the work you have done in mediation falls apart between the time you complete mediation and get to court.  Our experience at
Westfield Mediation, LLC, is that this rarely happens.  Once you consult an attorney for legal advice, the lawyer may suggest you change this or that about the agreement.  As long as you pick a mediation-friendly review attorney, the bones of your agreement usually stay the same and some minor details may be altered.  The only time we have seen mediation utterly fall apart after mediation was complete was when a spouse picked a non-mediation-friendly attorney who basically immediately threw out the agreement and wanted the spouse to start from scratch. 

Divorce mediation is a court recognized settlement process.  The court will accept the fair and equitable divorce agreement you reached during mediation.  It is nice to have the flexibility to modify slightly your original agreement without it all falling apart after mediation.  That flexibility allows people to feel comfortable making important decisions in mediation for their future. 
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For more information about Divorce Mediation contact Randi M. Albert, JD, or Michelle Weinberg, LMFT, at Westfield Mediation, LLC, at 908.913.0373.  View our website at
www.westfieldnjmediation.com or email us at info@westfieldnjmediation.com
 

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How Long does it take to go through mediation?

8/5/2016

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Everyone has heard horror stories about how long it takes for some couples to get divorced through litigation.  Sometimes years (as well as tens of thousands of dollars).   But, how long does it take to get divorced if you go through divorce mediation? That’s the first question from a lot of our divorce mediation clients at Westfield Mediation, LLC.  And the answer is that divorce mediation goes much faster than litigation.  Exactly how fast, really depends on you.

For clients who go through divorce mediation, the process generally takes 4 - 6 sessions with a mediator.  Most people schedule them 2-3 weeks apart, to give themselves time to gather information and materials, and to think about the issues.  In our experience, it can be useful to have some down time in between sessions to give your plans some extra thought and consideration. 

Still, some couples are in a hurry to to move forward, and want to meet every week; while others meet at longer intervals, either because they are in no rush, or because they want to tie up some loose ends before going forward.  In other cases, clients choose to move more slowly because they want to space out the payments for mediation.

So how long does mediation take?  Start to finish, the divorce mediation process can be as short as a few weeks, or as long as you want it to be.

​For more information about divorce mediation, please contact Randi M. Albert, JD, or Michelle Weinberg, LMFT, at Westfield Mediation, LLC, at 908.913.0373.  View our website at www.westfieldnjmediation.com or email us at
info@westfieldnjmediation.com
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    Authors

    Michelle Weinberg, M.Ed.,LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with many years of experience working with couples.

    Randi M. Albert, JD, is an attorney with experience in family law and public service.

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