No one ever wants any kind of trouble and dispute with their family members or relatives. However, there are certain circumstances where family members do get into serious disputes. Sometimes, even married couples decide to go for a divorce. Whenever such situations arise, you should hire the services of a good lawyer for mediating or contesting the disputes.
Certified family lawyer
During such situations of family deputes, people need an experienced mediator to help them arrive at an amicable resolution. Family law attorneys have the competence of settling family disputes without any biases. These lawyers handle all types of family matters like divorce, guardianship, child custody, parenting conflicts, property sharing, child support, etc.
Keller Legal Services is the leading Naperville family lawyer, having experience of more than 3 decades. They have offices in Naperville, Wheaton, and Aurora, Illinois. The lawyers of this firm are knowledgeable and have helped innumerable clients in getting the best outcomes on divorces and other family disputes. Lawyers from Keller Legal Services represent clients throughout Kane and Will counties in Illinois.
Kinds of family disputes generally arise in a family
Before getting to family dispute mediation, let’s first understand some of the disputes that commonly occur in families.
Mentioned below is a broad list of family disputes:
- Divorce and separation: Under various circumstances, married couples decide to split ways from each other. It could be due to reasons like extramarital affairs, work-related stress, financial conflicts, domestic abuse, etc. Here, a good family lawyer can help with mediation or out-of-court settlement. If needed they will also contest on behalf of their client in the court of law.
- Post-Divorce issues: Even after separating from each other, there can still be conflicts related to child custody, financial matters, alimony, maintenance expenses, etc.
- Parenting: Here the parents can raise their issue over how the children should be raised on taken care of. Sometimes the matter worsens and causes bigger issues.
- Inheritance and division: Here issues related to the division of the property and debts arise. Such disputes among the siblings or spouses also cause problems for their parents.
- Eldercare: Such disputes also arise between siblings for taking care of the parents. If one gets the charge of their parents, other siblings might feel favoritism against them, which can lead to more disputes. Eldercare disputes might also occur between parents and children.
How does the mediation process work under family law?
It is a process through which you get to solve the issues without heading to court. In the process of mediation, the mediator is usually a family lawyer. They will have good experience in family law and can help in solving the dispute without contenting in the court. It is a voluntary process, where any of the conflicting parties cannot be forced to agree to mediation terms if they feel that it is not fair.
Let’s have a look at the stages of mediation:
- Stage 1: Mediators opening statement – In this stage, the disputants shall be called to assemble for a meeting. Here the mediator introduces everyone and explains the situation, the consequences, goals, and the rules of the mediation. That mediator also encourages the disputants to be understanding and cooperative throughout the process.
- Stage 2: Disputants’ opening statement – In this step, both the disputants will be given the chance to represent their views and points regarding the dispute and its consequences. These conflicts can be financial or something else. In this process, no one is allowed to interrupt the other person while representing.
- Step 3: Joint discussion among all – Here the mediator allows and encourages everyone to respond to the opening statements given by the opposite party, and represent their views.
- Step 4: Private caucuses – In this process, both parties will be given a chance to meet and discuss with the mediator separately, where they can discuss the strengths and weaknesses of both parties. After which the mediator can exchange their views to each other, and also can exchange the offers provided by the parties themselves.
- Step 5: Joint negotiation – This step in mediation depends upon the mediator. If needed, he can bring the parties back together to discuss directly, or simply can directly go to the final step to get the conclusion.
- Stage 6: Closure – This is the final step in the process, where the mediator puts forward the provision for parties to sign the summary of the agreement, It is only if the mediation ends up in a proper conclusion. If not, they can continue the negotiation or may take the help of the court for legal resolution of the dispute.
What are the benefits of mediation?
As mentioned earlier, it is a process tried by the disputants to negotiate the resolution of their dispute.
Here are the benefits that you can get from the mediation process instead of going to court:
- It is a voluntary process, which means you can withdraw from it anytime you want.
- Unlike in the court proceedings, where the disputes get highlighted in the public domain, you get the advantage to keep your case confidential.
- It gives faster results, where you can get the agreement quicker as compared to going through the courts.
- Another major advantage of mediation is the preservation of relationships. Whether it is a business or family dispute, both parties get the chance to communicate with each other and also oppose the other party at the same time.
- The mediation process mostly concludes a resolution that is convenient to both parties. Also, both get the chance to get interact with each other and represent their point of view.
- Also, here the party gets great control over the resolution since they get directly involved in the negotiation of the agreement. In courts, the lawyer does most of the talking and has to accept the ruling made by the judge.
- In the process of mediation, the mediator supports and listens to both parties without taking any bias. He also tries to make the parties understand each other’s situation.
Conclusion
If you are facing such disputes related to your family, you can go for a proper mediation with the help of a certified mediator. It will help in getting a faster resolution that is agreeable to both the disputing parties.
