Is divorce mediation really necessary? And, what is mediation anyways?

Welcome to the Mediation edition of Doing Divorce Differently. My name is Steven Leskin. I am a divorce attorney in Portland Oregon. I have been practicing in Oregon since 1992.

By law, parties to a lawsuit are required to engage in some form of direct problem solving prior to trial. At some point in the divorce litigation process, you will be required by the court to mediate your differences with your spouse.

Mediation is the process of working with a neutral, professional third party to constructively arrive at a mutually agreed solution. If you hire a divorce attorney, your attorney is likely going to suggest mediation.

Mediation is preferable to trial because the couple keeps control of the process and neither is required to accept an outcome, a couple works together towards a resolution of their differences, and mediation preserves the relationship better the adversarial nature of a trial. Mediation is also less expensive than trial preparation and a day in court.

Again, my name is Steven Leskin. I am a divorce attorney in Portland. I have been practicing in Oregon since 1992. My law practice developed the One Day Divorce: a hybrid mediation arbitration process designed to quickly and expediently bring an end to your unhappy marriage. One Day Divorce. We do divorce differently.