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I have practiced family law in Oakland County, Michigan for thirty years and many people come to me with questions about family law.  People frequently ask me whether I think they should mediate their divorce case with their spouse.  This blog is written to generally address the question whether you should mediate your divorce case in Michigan and how that process works.  If you have questions regarding family law, please do not hesitate to contact our office to schedule a consultation by clicking on this link or calling (248) 608-4123.

Should I Mediate My Divorce In Michigan?

Frankly I am a firm believer in mediation in family law cases and I find it to be the most effective way to resolve most divorce disputes.  First and foremost, mediation is far more cost effective than taking a case to trial, it is very expensive to take a case to trial.  It also takes a long time to get to a trial in Michigan, partly because the process of getting divorced is designed to be a slow one. While mediation is not free, it can be done for far less money and time than a divorce trial by thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.  It is also far faster and is better designed to handle marital issues than the antiquated court system still in use today.

Second, regardless of what any lawyer may tell you, we do not have a crystal ball and we cannot know in advance exactly what a judge will do in any given case because every case is different.  Not only that but you often get a different opinion from one judge to another.  Actually, you can even get a different opinion from the same judge on what appear to be the same facts on different days.  By mediating the case you are able to maintain some control over the outcome of the case.  While not everyone is satisfied with the outcome of the mediation, it is typically the best way to resolve a divorce case.

Finally if you are in Oakland County or Macomb, Michigan, the court will order your case to mediation so most likely you will have to mediate your case.  The most recent statistics show that approximately 96% of all divorce cases in Oakland County are resolved in Mediation before trial.  I believe this is evidence of how effective it can be when you chose the right mediator.

Regarding the mediation process, I typically suggest that at least one of the spouses hire an attorney and file a complaint for divorce to get the case started before attempting to mediate the case..  This allows both spouses to conduct discovery, which is the process by which we are able to gain a full knowledge of each party's assets, labilities or any other information that we need to resolve the case before we attempt to mediate and resolve the issues.  Filing before attempting to mediate also creates a requirement for both parties to actually attend the mediation because in most instances the court will order you to mediation, whereas if you try to mediate your case before filing for divorce, either party could just refuse to cooperate or even refuse to show-up at the scheduled mediation.  Finally, if you do decide to mediate the matter before filing for divorce, you will still most likely need to hire a divorce lawyer to prepare the proper documents, get them signed and entered with the Court.  Failure to properly follow filing requirements may make the mediation a waste of time, so I do recommend that you hire an attorney to at least prepare the required paperwork to effectuate any agreements reached at mediation.

This blog was written to very generally address the question of whether one should mediate their divorce matter in Michigan.  If you have specific questions regarding any aspect of family law, please do not hesitate to contact our office to schedule a consultation by clicking on this link or calling (248) 608-4123.