The more successful someone is, the more they may have to lose in a divorce. Any income or property that they accumulated during their marriage might be vulnerable. They may have to divide most of their property with their spouse unless they have a prenuptial agreement protecting some of their assets as their separate property.
There may also be support obligations because of the standard of living during the marriage. Their career success could even negatively affect custody arrangements if they cannot be consistently available for their children.
Frequently, successful professionals may prefer to mediate divorce disputes instead of litigating them. Why is mediation often attractive to successful professionals?
The desire to protect their privacy
The information disclosed during divorce proceedings frequently becomes part of the public record. Other people can find out about marital disputes and the extent of someone’s property. That simply isn’t the case in mediation. What couples discuss in mediation remains confidential. Only the agreement that they sign at the end of the process becomes part of the public record. Particularly when a professional is in a high-profile position, they may want to avoid the attention that a public divorce might attract.
The need to control certain details
In litigated divorces, spouses essentially allow a judge to make all of the major decisions about their family’s future. When couples mediate, they set the terms of their divorce on their own. They choose how they divide their property and share parental rights and responsibilities with each other. They can even settle financial support matters outside of court as long as they do not violate state law in the process. If someone wants to protect their professional practice from liquidation or feels strongly about securing specific custody terms that can help them parent without damaging their career, mediation is often a better option than trying to litigate divorce issues.
There are a host of other reasons why couples might choose to mediate, including that they will likely spend less time in court and can more effectively control the costs of their divorce. Discussing divorce mediation as an alternative to litigation can be beneficial for those preparing for complex divorces. Spouses who work things out cooperatively have less reason to worry than those facing the uncertainty of divorce litigation.