How to Conduct Yourself at Divorce Mediation

The way you act in your divorce mediation sessions will have a significant impact on how your case turns out. While your mediator themselves will not make decisions regarding your case, the entire point of going to mediation is to be in an environment that fosters positive communication and negotiation. Behavior that prevents that from happening efficiently will draw out your divorce process and make it more expensive.

Here are a few tips for how to conduct yourself at your mediation sessions to improve the results you get from the process.

• Reflect in advance: Do all of the soul searching and reflection you need before your mediation sessions. Once you’re present at mediation it is important that you have some clarity on the key issues and are ready to negotiate.
• Be clear on your positions: Rather than being wishy washy about your opinions or struggling to make your case, be very clear about what you believe and what your priorities are. This will make for a much less frustrating and more effective mediation session.
• Be cordial: Avoid insults or unnecessary pettiness. It’s understandable to harbor ill will toward your spouse, but this is not the setting to start an argument or let the insults fly. That will only damage your ability to reach agreements on the key issues.
• Be reasonable: Being unreasonable with your demands and settlement ideas is a way to potentially sabotage your negotiations. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hold strong on the issues that are most important to you, but it does mean that you need to be willing to compromise in some areas and you cannot expect every issue to go exactly the way you want.

For more tips about how you can positively influence the mediation process through your own actions and demeanor, contact an experienced Long Island divorce lawyer at Solutions Divorce Mediation.