Mediation
In traditional Family Law litigation, each side ideally hires a lawyer to represent their interests in negotiating with their ex-partner, or if necessary, to take them to court. If one or both people in the dispute cannot afford a lawyer, they are often left to navigate a legally complex and psychologically stressful process by themselves.
In Family Law mediation, both people choose a mediator, who is an independent third party trained to guide the parties to an agreed resolution of their issues. Mediation has a number of advantages over the traditional litigation or negotiations approach, including:
- Voluntary Participation: Each person in the dispute is there willingly to find a good-faith solution to their dispute.
- Creative Solutions: The mediator can suggest creative solutions to problems that would not be considered by the courts or their lawyers.
- Less Destructive Process: Litigation is hard on both sides of the dispute, but can be especially hard on children of the separated couple. When parties mediate, the children see their parents working together to come up with a solution that minimizes the pain their children are feeling in a turbulent time of their life.
People who sign up for Mediation should expect the following from their mediator:
- Pre-Mediation Phone Call: Your mediator will talk to you and your ex-partner separately before the mediation starts, to explain the process to you and ensure that you’re ready to mediate.
- Flexible Process: Though most family law mediations are conducted with both sides sitting at a table together with the mediator, many mediators will also meet with parties separately and move back and forth between them with proposals, a process called shuttle mediation. Often mediations are conducted virtually.
- Confidentiality: Family Mediations are typically “closed”, which means that both sides have agreed that details of the negotiations are kept confidential whether the mediation succeeds or fails.
- Preparation: Your mediator will want detailed information about the social and financial background of both ex-partners, to enable them to propose reasonable solutions to their dispute.
Marc Ducharme has been providing family law services as a litigator for 15 years now, and is excited to introduce mediation services to his practice. Marc has always provided clear, practical legal advice to his own family law clients, and is able to extend this skill to assist ex-partners put together separation agreements that are fair, reasonable and workable.
Not every case is appropriate for mediation. If your family law matter is not suitable to be mediated, Mr. Ducharme provides the following additional family law litigation services. Note that the services below are litigaton-style services, and Mr. Ducharme can only meet with one party in the dispute to offer Flat Fee or Legal Coaching.
Flat Fee Services
Sometimes you are unable to retain a lawyer for full representation, or maybe your matter is simple enough that you can handle much of it yourself. Ducharme Law can provide you with flat fee services to help you out where you need it most:
- Preparation of Application/Answer
- Preparation of Conference Documents
- Assistance with Financial Statements
Legal Coaching
You can handle going to court on your own, you just need some advice on what to expect, what your rights and obligations are, how to bargain effectively. At Ducharme Law you can meet with a lawyer for a coaching session, as many times as you need to over the course of your family law court case. Your lawyer will coach you on:
- The basic process of a family court Application
- Your rights and obligations based on your own fact situation
- Bargaining tips and tricks
- What to expect from your judge