Houston Divorce Mediation Attorneys

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) allows spouses to resolve their divorce in or out of court.

Litigating divorces often costs a significant amount of time and resources. Many spouses also find the process incredibly stressful, particularly if they desire an amicable resolution with their soon-to-be-ex.

Instead of using litigation, couples can utilize a form of alternative dispute resolution to negotiate terms for their divorce and reach an agreement outside the courtroom.

Using a form of alternative dispute resolution like mediation or collaborative law to resolve your divorce can have the following benefits:

• It Costs Less – The average divorce in the U.S. costs around $15,000. Lawyers often charge significantly less for ADR services, and other factors we'll mention in a moment also serve to reduce the cost.
• It's Faster – When couples focus on negotiation through ADR, they can often resolve their divorce much more quickly than if they litigated it in the courtroom.
• It's More Amicable – Methods of ADR focus on helping parties negotiate and collaborate with each other to end their marriage, which frequently results in an amicable resolution that both parties are happy with.
• It's More Private – Because ADR happens outside of the courtroom, it doesn't occur on public record - which can be particularly useful during high-profile divorces.
• You Have More Control – If you use ADR to dissolve your marriage, you have more direct control over the outcome than if you rely on a court to decide matters on your behalf.
• It's Less Stressful – Generally, ADR leads to more peaceful, mutually beneficial outcomes than litigating a divorce.

Mediation is perhaps the most popular form of ADR, and many courts require spouses to engage in mediation before allowing them to litigate their divorce in court.

In divorce mediation, the parties, together with their attorneys, hire and work with a mediator who helps the parties reach an agreement to resolve some, or even all of the contested issues. The parties’ lawyers then take that agreement to use to craft a final decree of divorce that a court can sign to dissolve the marriage.

Mediators cannot provide legal advice to clients, but must act as a neutral facilitator. The parties rely on our lawyers to negotiate on their behalf and for legal counsel during the mediation process.

Divorce mediation can occur over as little as a session, or take multiple sessions to resolve, depending on the case.

Collaborative law is another form of ADR.

To utilize the collaborative law process in Texas, both spouses must hire a collaborative law attorney. The parties, through their attorneys, then advise the court that they will be engaging in the collaborative process so that the court will not impose typical deadlines and set the case for trial. The parties and their attorneys then proceed to conduct a series of meetings and information exchanges to disclose finances and negotiate the terms for divorce.

Collaboration is said to offer couples a more deliberate form of negotiation than mediation and to be advantageous because it eliminates the mediator from the process. That may or may not be an advantage, however. Furthermore, there are disadvantages to collaborative divorce.

Most arbitration takes place in the realm of commercial or business disputes, however, there are times when family businesses are governed by agreements that require the arbitration of disputes and all matters related to such disputes and that situation can cause parties to a divorce case to be compelled to arbitrate issues such as the valuation of business interests. It is also possible for the parties to agree to arbitrate appropriate issues such as property characterization, valuation and division with knowledgeable arbitrators experienced in such issues, particularly where the issues are highly complex and knowledgeable arbitrators can be chosen to hear them.

When spouses decide to use arbitration, they enter into an agreement to arbitrate and appoint one or more arbitrators to the case. They present their cases to that individual or arbitration panel. The arbiter hears the evidence and makes a judgment on divorce-related issues, enabling the parties to divorce privately without entering the courtroom.