By Joe Costello
Florida Divorce Attorney, Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator, and Founder of Split Simply, Inc.
No one marries with the intention of getting divorced, but sometimes, marriages break down and relationships fall apart. As the saying goes, you don’t divorce the same person that you married. The pathway to divorce can be littered with heartache, guilt, resentment, lack of trust, confusion, or all of the above. This can be brought about by any number of factors, including changed circumstances, financial troubles, lack of intimacy, disagreements over children, or by simply growing apart over time. Anyone who has been through a divorce can relate to this range of emotions.
Regardless of each couple’s pathway to divorce, the divorce process itself can cause confusion, intimidation, and helplessness, not to mention the immense financial toll even the simplest of divorces can take on a family. On the low end, a contested divorce can easily cost a family ten to twenty thousand dollars in attorney’s fees and costs, with more complex divorces costing substantially more. The high costs of divorce litigation are often the result of raw emotions guiding the decision making process, along with high hourly rates for the attorneys and professionals involved, and lengthy, frustrating delays in the divorce proceedings.
Unlike any other area of law, divorces raise highly emotional, personal issues, including those related to a person’s children, their employment, their home, and their hard-earned savings or retirement funds, not to mention the breakdown of the marriage itself. It is no wonder that good sense and reasonableness quickly take a back seat to “winning” the divorce proceedings. As an experienced Family Law trial attorney with more than a decade of experience, I have lost count as to the number of times that a client has told me that they would rather pay me “x” than pay their spouse a much lower “y”. That said, there is a better, more cost effective way forward when divorce is inevitable, especially in these uncertain times.
Mediation is process by which parties come together and meet with a mediator to resolve their differences. A mediator is a neutral third party whose role is to facilitate and encourage settlement, rather than resolution by a judge’s order. Ideally, a divorce mediator should be certified by the Florida Supreme Court as a Family Mediator, which requires a high level of training, experience, and expertise. Mediation is a confidential, voluntary process, meaning that anything discussed during mediation cannot be disclosed to a judge at a later date. This gives the parties an opportunity to speak and negotiate freely without fear of the negotiations being used against them later if no agreement is reached. When a divorcing couple mediates, rather than litigates, they retain the decision making power, rather than giving that power to a judge who has hundreds of cases to deal with, who may only meet you once, and who knows nothing about the unique dynamics of your family. Finally, mediating your divorce, rather than litigating your divorce, can legitimately save you tens of thousands of dollars.
The dirty little secret of divorce litigation is that nearly every single divorce is ordered to mediation by the judge anyway, and certainly before a trial ever takes place. Unfortunately, by then, the papers have usually been flying for months, both parties are more entrenched in their legal positions than ever, and both parties have spent a small fortune in litigation costs. Not exactly a recipe for settlement.
At Split Simply, we turn the divorce process on its head and provide couples with the opportunity to mediate and resolve their dispute on the front end, before anyone “lawyers up” and before the battle lines are drawn. For a low, flat fee, with no hidden costs or surprises, you and your spouse will meet with an experienced Florida divorce attorney and Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator, mediate your case, and walk out of mediation with all of the customized legal documents you will need to file and finalize your uncontested divorce. At every stage of our process, you and your spouse will have total control over the resolution of your differences. Moreover, our low, flat rates are set significantly less than just one party can expect to pay as a retainer to a divorce attorney. Best of all, and given the constraints currently in place as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, you can mediate with Split Simply from the comfort and safety of your own home, as we utilize the most advanced videoconference technology, at no additional cost, to facilitate a virtual mediation.
Divorce can be painful, but it does not have to cost a fortune. When it’s time to split, Split Simply. To schedule your mediation, please contact us at info@splitsimply.com or for more information, visit our website at splitsimply.com.