You are finally divorced!  No matter what process you used to get divorced (litigation, mediation, collaborative, arbitration, DIY, etc.) you are now officially divorced.  You went through the court process and a judge signed off on your divorce decree.  You are done.  Or are you?  Divorce agreements are pieces of paper that cannot possibly address all issues that occur in real life.  In real life, issues arise that were not included in your agreement because who knew back when you got divorced then that this may come up now.  Or you were so anxious about getting a divorce that future issues were just not included. So, your divorce agreement may have left some key points out, like how are you paying for college for your children, and now it is time to pay for college for your children.  Conversations/emails/texts with your co-parent have not gone well and you have made no progress about how to resolve this issue.  You are sure that the only way to resolve this is to return to court and plead your case before the judge.  The judge will make a ruling that you will both need to abide by.

But that is usually not the case these days. Final divorce agreements often require that ex-spouses see a mediator before resorting to utilizing the court system (unless to require enforcement of the agreement or to collect money referred to in the agreement).  The court system supports post-divorce mediation and sees how successful it can be. Resolving an issue outside of court in post-divorce mediation frees up the court system to address cases more quickly and benefits everyone. Co-parents can settle their dispute in a timely manner for a low cost in post-divorce mediation at Westfield Mediation, LLC.  Unless…co-parents are just coming to post-divorce mediation because it is required before they can take the step they really want, which is to have their day in court…again.

The judge will eventually hear your post-divorce case.  And may not be pleased that you were the reason the issues were not solved in post-divorce mediation. So, it behooves all parties to come to post-divorce mediation with an open mind and put in sincere effort to try to resolve the presenting issues.  It may actually be to your detriment to come to mediation with obviously no intention of working out an agreement and just to check the box that you followed protocol.  You may actually find that putting in some effort during the post-divorce mediation process allows you to reach an agreement.  There is give and take in the post-divorce process, just like there was when you were going through the original divorce process.  Nobody gets everything they want, but they can reach a consensus through the post-divorce mediation process. Which is a win-win situation for all involved, including the court system.