HOW TO MINIMIZE DIVORCE MEDIATION FEES
HOW TO MINIMIZE DIVORCE MEDIATION FEES

I participated in a typical divorce mediation this past week (to provide financial analysis) and was amazed at the tremendous cost.  By typical mediation, I am referring to each spouse having an attorney and then an attorney mediator communicating between the attorneys.  During this one day, the mediator earned $4,000 of fees.  The attorneys each earned $3,000 in fees.  So, that one day of mediation cost the couple $10,000 in professional fees.  This does not include the $9,000 of attorney fees it cost them before mediation... Total professional fees of $19,000 for a VERY SIMPLE case... And the worst part is the case was not settled duirng this medaition session.  This benefits the professionals as they continue to rack up billable hours.  This does not benefit the spouses, their emotional wee-being or, their bank account.

Too much time and money was wasted because the two attorneys had very different formats for the list of assests and debts.  So, comparing the information to understand their two different settlement proposals was not an easy task.  This waste of time and the client's money allowed the attorneys to earn big fees but, the clients did not see any benefit.

This is very typical of standard divorce mediation.  Because divircing spouses typically have not been divorced before, they don't understand their process options or how to minimize the professional fees.  One simple way clients can minimize mediation fees is to request both attorneys use the same format to list the assets and debts.  There are many other ways spouses can control divorce mediation attorney fees.  Call our office for more information.