The Role of Civility in Divorce Mediation
Some people want their day in court to have a chance to tell their story to a judge and to have the entire dramatic struggle between attorneys advocating for their client’s interests unfold before them. If I am being honest cases with multiple hearings make family lawyers the most amount of money because we all bill hourly. The courtroom struggle isn’t always in the client’s interests though. Sometimes a little civility can end up saving a client a lot of money.
I have seen cases where two parties are so mad at each other that speaking with a cool tongue is impossible. It isn’t until the attorney’s swap position statements (see: Rule 49(c) of the Arizona Rules of Family Law Procedure) that everyone realizes that they aren’t that far off from each other. In these cases, a settlement option is often the quickest and least expensive option for a client. What I tell people in these situations is: if you can talk to the other party with a cool head over email and try to come to a few agreements then you are going to make life easier on the divorce attorneys and limit the number of issues that need to be settled and ultimately save some money and headaches.