Divorce Mediation vs. Divorce Arbitration: What You Should Know

Divorce arbitration, like divorce mediation, is an alternative method to resolving divorce issues that keeps you out of litigation. But how does it differ from mediation?

Where mediation involves working with a third-party mediator to negotiate the issues of your divorce while maintaining control over the outcome, arbitration involves working with a private judge (an arbitrator) to make decisions.

There are those who confuse mediation and arbitration, so here’s an overview of what arbitration is and how it differs from mediation.

About arbitration

Arbitration is similar to mediation in that it is a faster, lower-cost way of getting through divorce in a less-formal environment. The exact process has some key differences, however.

Each side will prepare their own arguments and evidence to present to an arbitrator, just as they would do in front of a judge in a courtroom. Evidence presentation is less formal, and it’s private (unlike a trial).

The main difference between arbitration and mediation is that the judge makes the decisions rather than the couple. The arbitrator’s decision is binding, so you can’t go back and re-work the issues if you don’t like the results.

This means if you want to maintain control over what happens to you in your divorce case, mediation is by far your best method to use for divorcing. Because the decision lies in the hands of the arbitrator, the outcome has an element of unpredictability to it, which can be very worrisome to people given the general unpredictability of divorce cases.

For more information about the benefits of using divorce mediation versus other methods of divorcing, contact an experienced Long Island attorney at Solutions Divorce Mediation.