How Much Does Divorce Mediation Cost?
Everyone knows that divorce can be expensive. One of the best ways to reduce the cost is to work with a mediator.
Divorce mediation is a process where a neutral third party, known as a mediator, helps separating couples (married and unmarried) reach agreements on issues of child custody (parenting time and decision-making), division of assets, and financial support. Unlike traditional divorce proceedings where decisions are often made by a judge, mediation empowers the couple to communicate directly and create their own tailor-made plan.
The mediation process is usually much cheaper than the traditional litigation route where two lawyers engage in a back and forth of exchanging documents and settlement proposals and engage in expensive court proceedings. Picture a game of telephone and how garbled the message is at the end of it. Wouldn’t it be better to sit at the same table and just talk to each other directly with a professional guiding the way?
This cost savings for clients is one of the biggest reasons Morgan Given started her mediation practice. After watching too many couples dwindle their savings through the court process, she was drawn to mediation as a way to help prevent that. She feels passionately about helping people save money in the divorce process.
So, how much does mediation in a divorce or custody case actually cost? Several factors impact how much divorce mediation will cost, including:
1) The number of issues that you need to work out with your spouse or partner.
2) The complexity of the issues that you are deciding.
3) How prepared YOU are.
4) Whether or not you use a private mediator or a free mediator provided through the court.
- The number of issues that you need to work out with your spouse or partner. Some couples come to mediation with just one issue, say how much should maintenance be? Some couples need to mediate dozens of issues related to parenting time, child support and division of assets and more. The amount of issues that need to be decided impacts the cost.
- The complexity of the issues that you are deciding. Do you or your spouse own businesses or several pieces of real estate? Are there challenging logistics at play like complicated work schedules or a long distance between the parents’ homes? The level of complexity of each issue will impact the total cost of mediation. However, these issues are also uniquely well suited to mediation because you have more information than anyone else about your particular situation. If you were to ask a judge to come up with a parenting schedule on the spot, he or she would not know the intricacies of the kids’ and parents’ schedules the way that you do.
- How prepared YOU are. This is a factor that is often overlooked. If you and your spouse come to mediation prepared you will save a great deal of money. As a mediator, Morgan’s approach is to assign “homework” to each spouse in advance of each session such as collecting financial documents, reviewing a proposal in advance, or consulting with an appraiser. This leads to a more productive session and a much lower overall cost.
- Whether or not you use a private mediator or a free mediator provided through the court. Some counties offer a form of free mediation. These are typically limited to two sessions and only address issues related to parenting time and decision-making (what we used to call custody). The court-provided mediators will not address financial issues like child support or the division of marital property and will typically not allow attorneys to participate in the sessions. For some couples, the free mediation service is absolutely the way to go. In situations where you want to move quickly, address financial or more complex parenting issues or involve your attorneys in the mediation session, you will likely want to consider a private mediator.
So, what is the actual cost? The “typical” mediation case that we handle costs around $2,000-$6,000, with that cost split between the couple. If you are interested in exploring mediation, contact our office to schedule a free consultation with Morgan Given.