You and your spouse realize that you cannot reconcile your differences. As a result, you decide to get divorced. However, the thought of playing tug of war with your soon-to-be ex is not exactly appealing. After all, getting a divorce is far from fun and games.
Fortunately, your divorce does not have to be an animosity-filled competition in Texas. Instead, you could work together to achieve a mutually beneficial result — without further court intrusion. One route for pursuing this is divorce mediation, which offers numerous potential benefits.
Speedy
One of the biggest possible benefits of mediation versus traditional divorce litigation is that it can be far quicker than litigation. Whereas mediation usually takes weeks or even days, lawsuits can easily take several months or more. For this reason, if you want to move on with your independent life sooner than later, mediation may be a wise move.
Less formal
This is yet another major potential advantage of going the mediation route versus the divorce trial route. Because mediation is more informal than litigation, you and your future ex-spouse may feel much more engaged than you would in a process that the court drives.
After all, in court, you have to contend with a multitude of procedures and rules designed to keep you and your future ex separate. On the contrary, in mediation, the mediator will work directly with you both. Therefore, he or she can focus more on your interests and needs instead of on your stated positions.
Preserves relationships
If you and your future ex have children, mediation may help to preserve the relationship between the two of you, thus making the co-parenting process much easier. Lengthy litigation may have the opposite effect on your relationship, which could potentially hurt the children emotionally and mentally in the long run.
Greater compliance
Generally, couples report better outcomes from mediation compared with lawsuits. Part of the reason for this is that mediation generally does not produce a loser or winner, and there is typically no admission of guilt or fault, either. Furthermore, you and your spouse can strive for a mutually satisfactory settlement, with which compliance tends to be much higher than it is with a lawsuit. During mediation, you have the right to pursue the most personally favorable outcome considering the circumstances surrounding your case while trying to find common ground with your soon-to-be ex.